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UNIX  y  of  CALIFORNIA 


VI— 1 


MOD  ERN    BUSINESS 


A  SERIES  OF  TEXTS 

PREPARED    AS    PART    OF    THE 

MODERN  BUSINESS  COURSE  AND  SERVICE 

OF  THE 

Alexander  Hamilton  Institute 


Modern   Business 


'Volu77ies 


Business  and  the  Man 
Economics  —  The    Science    of 

Business 
Business  Organization 
Plant  Management 
Marketing  and  Merchandising 

6.  Salesmanship  and  Sales 

Management 

7.  Advertising  Principles 

8.  Office  Administration 

9.  Accounting  Principles 

10.  Credit  and  Collections 

11.  Business  Correspondence 

12.  Cost  Finding 

13.  Advertising  Campaigns 


14.  Corporation  Finance 

15.  Transportation 

16.  Foreign  Trade  and  Shipping 

17.  Banking 

18.  International  Exchange 

19.  Insurance 

20.  The  Stock  and  Produce 

Exchanges 

21.  Accounting  Practice  and 

Auditing 

22.  Financial  and  Business 

Statements 

23.  Investments 

24.  Business   and  the 

Government 


editor-in-chief 


JOSEPH  FRENCH  JOHNSON 


managing  editor 
ROLAND  P.  FALKNER 


ASSOCIATE    editors 

T.  Coulston  Bolton,  Ralph  D.  Fleming,  Leo  Greendlinger 
Charles  W.  Hurd,  Theodore  H.  Rand-McNally 


writers  and  consultants 
\_  See  list  on  page  v  of  Volume  I  3 


SALESMANSHIP  AND  SALES 
MANAGEMENT 


WRITTEN  FOR  THE  ALEXANDER   HAMILTON    INSTITUTE 
BY 

JOHN  G.  JONES 

IN   COLLABORATION    WITH 

RAYMOND  J.  COMYNS 


MODERN  BUSINESS 
VOLUME  6 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  INSTITUTE 
NEW  YORK 


CO  P  YR  IG  H  T  •  I  9  I  8  •  I  9  X  9  •  I  92  I  ,, 

BY     ALEXANDER      HAMILTON      INSTITUTE 

COPYRIGHT  IN   GREAT  BRITAIN   •    igiS   •    1919  •    I92I 
BY      ALEXANDER      HAMILTON      INSTITUTE 

The  title  and  contents  of  this  volume  as  ivell  as  the  ^ 

business  groiving   out   of  it,   are   further   protected  by 
laws  relating  to   trade   marks  and  unfair  trade.    All  " 

rights  reserved,  including  translation  into  Scandinavian. 

REGISTERED  TRADE   MARK  •   REG.   U.S.   PAT.  OFF.  . 

MARCA   REGISTRADA   •    M.   DE  F.  • 

MADE   IN   U  •  S  •  A 


?^'' 


I 

-  PREFACE 

:'^ 

i  <    .    In  this  Text  it  has  been  the  author's  aim  to  present 
'  ^    the  fundamental  principles  underlying  the  whole  field 
/   of  personal  salesmanship,  as  revealed  in  the  experience 
fj    of  a  large  number  of  successful  salesmen. 

There  are  three  fundamental  ideas  upon  which  the 

Text  rests  and  the  author  has  sought  as  far  as  possible 

^    to  make  them  stand  out  above  all  others.     First,  the 

^    prospect  is  not  a  victim  to  be  sold  something  which 

he  cannot  use  to  advantage.     Second,  a  sale  is  not  a 

cold,   scientific  process,  but  a  red-blooded,  man-to- 

n  man  transaction.     Third,  while  a  knowledge  of  the 

1   principles  of  salesmanship  is  necessary,  the  one  way 

in  which  a  man  can  improve  his  selling  ability  is  to 

improve  himself — to  acquire  strong,  positive  business 

qualities,  to  eliminate  weak  ones,  and  thus  to  acquire 

character,  caliber  and  personality. 

The  author  has  given  special  attention  to  the  sub- 
ject of  sales  management  and  this  treatment  is  the 
first  attempt  to  formulate  the  principles  underlying- 
successful  sales  management  in  all  its  phases.  The 
problems  of  sales  management  are  treated  not  from 
the  standpoint  of  getting  the  most  out  of  salesmen, 
but  from  that  of  getting  the  best  from  them  that  they 
have  to  give.     And  the  keynote  of  present-day  sales 


r- 


vl  PREFACE 

management  is  the  assumption  by  progressive  sales 
managers  of  the  moral  responsibility  to  develop  the 
individual  members  of  their  sales  organizations  and 
thus  to  enlarge  their  individual  earning  capacities. 

The  Text  herewith  presented  was  prepared  for 
the  Alexander  Hamilton  Institute  by  Director  of 
Sales  and  Advertising,  Mr.  John  G.  Jones.  Mr. 
Jones  has  requested  that  the  editors  record  his  grate- 
ful acknowledgment  of  the  valuable  and  unselfish 
labors  of  his  collaborator,  Mr.  Raymond  J.  Comyns, 
Assistant  Director  of  Sales  for  the  Institute. 

The  Editors. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PART  I 
SALESMANSHIP 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  POWER  OF  PERSONAL  SALESMANSHIP 

SECTION  PAGE 

1.  Importance  of  Distribution 3 

2.  Salesmanship's  Place  in  Field  of  Marketing  .       .  4 

3.  Relation  of  Advertising  and  Salesmanship      .       .  4 

4.  Importance  of  Personal  Salesmanship  ....  6 

5.  Merchandising   Machine 7 

6.  Power  Furnished  by  the  Salesman 8 

7.  Vast  Influence  of  Salesmanship        .       .       .       .       .9 

8.  Dignity  of  the  Salesman's  Work 9 

9.  Demand  Versus  Supply  of  Salesmen    ....  10 

10.  Remuneration  of  Salesmen 11 

11.  Demand  for  Retail  Salesmen 11 

12.  Salesmen  Who  Seek  the  Bu3^er 13 

13.  Opportunities  in  Salesmanship 13 

14.  What  the  Salesman  Learns 14 

15.  Universality  of  Selling 15 

16.  Selling  Ability  Not  Necessarily  Inherent  ...  16 

17.  Knowledge  Plus  Practice 17 

CHAPTER  II 
STAPLES,  BRANDED  STAPLES  AND  SPECIALTIES 

1.  Divisions  of-Selling 19 

2.  Where  Buyer  Seeks  Seller  and  Vice  Versa  ...  19 

3.  Single  Versus  Repeated  Sales 20 

4.  Staples  and  Specialties 21 

vii 


viii  SALESMANSHIP 

SECTION  PAGE 

5.  Selling  Specialties 22 

6.  Specialties  Become  Staples 22 

7.  Branded    Staples 24* 

8.  Branded  Staple  and  the  Salesman 25 

9.  Selling  Staples    . 26 

10.     Factors  in  a  Sale 27 

CHAPTER  III 

SELLING  PROCESS— PRELIMINARY  TO  THE 
INTERVIEW 

1.  Definition  of  a  Sale 28 

2.  Development    of   a    Sale 29 

3.  Preparation  for  the  Interview  , 30 

4<.      Studying  the  Prospect 31 

5.  Gathering  Information 32 

6.  Using  a  Card-index 33 

7.  Securing  an  Interview    .    *  .       .       .       ,       .       .      .  34 

8.  Men  Hard  to  See .35 

9.  Tactics  to  Be  Avoided 35 

10.  Advantages  of  Using  the  Telephone    ....  37 

11.  How  to  Use  the  Telephone  Effectively  ....  38 

12.  Disadvantage  of  Too  Definite  Appointments   .       .  41 

13.  Use  of  Business  Card 42 

14.  Dignified  Bearing  in  Outer  Office 42 

15.  Office  Etiquet 43 

16.  Securing  Favorable  Conditions  for  Interview  .       .  45 

17.  Cooperation  in  Reaching  the  Prospect        ...  46 

18.  Individuality  in  Announcing  Oneself   ....  47 

19.  Proper   Approach 49 

CHAPTER  IV 
SELLING  PROCESS— THE  INTERVIEW 

1.  Object  of  Studying  Developments  in  a  Sale  .      .  50 

2.  Attention;  Its  Nature 50 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  ix 

SECTION                     _  PAGl 

3.  Conditions  Favorable  to  Attention        ....  51 

4.  The  Card  and  the  Handshake 52 

5.  The  Psychology  of  the  Small  Favor     ....  53 

6.  Transferring  Attention  to  Goods 56 

7.  Opening  Talk 57 

8.  An  Interest-Provoking  Question 57 

9.  Attention  Thru  Curiosity 59 

10.  Dramatic  Means  of  Getting  Attention      ...  60 

11.  Prospect's  Participation  in  Sale 62 

12.  Securing  Attention  to  a  Varied  Line   ....  63 

13.  Trunk  Lines  and  Sample  Rooms 64 

14*.  Making  Appointments 65 

15.  Displaying  Samples  Attractively 66 

16.  The  "You"  Attitude 67 

17.  Example  of  the  "You"  Attitude     .....  68 

18.  Interest 69 

19.  Salesman's  Vocabulary 70 

20.  Law  of  Mental  Domination 71 

21.  Interruptions  in  the  Interview 71 

22.  Demonstration 72 

23.  Principles  of  Demonstration,  and  Prospect's  Par- 

ticipation        73 

24.  Threefold  Confidence 75 

CHAPTER  V 
SELLING  PROCESS— THE  AGREEMENT 

1.  Meeting  Objections 77 

2.  Antagonism  or  a  Friendly  Get-Together  ...  78 

3.  Anticipating  the  Objection 78 

4.  When  to  Mention  Price 79 

5.  Unreasoned  Inhibition 80 

6.  Tact  in  Opposing  the  Prospect 80 

7.  Faulty  Presentation  Creates  Inhibitions    ...  81 

8.  Daring  and  Independence 82 

9.  Discussing  Competitors'  Goods        .       .       .       ,      .  83 


X  SALESMANSHIP 

SECTION  PAGE 

10.  Minimizing  Objections 84 

11.  Objections  Indicating  Lack  of  Desire  ....  85 

12.  Desire 85 

13.  Desire  and  the  "You"  Attitude 86 

14.  Desire  Indicated 89 

15.  The  Close 90 

16.  Securing   Decision 91 

17.  Courage  and  Positive  Suggestion 93 

18.  "Decision  on  a  Minor  Point"  Principle    ...  94 

19.  "Writing  Out  the  Order"  Close 95 

20.  Turning  Points  of  Decision 97 

21.  Mechanical    Schemes 98 

CHAPTER  VI 

SELLING  PROCESS— MISCELLANEOUS 

1.  Concurrence  of  Buyer  and  Seller 101 

2.  Persistence  of  the  Right  Kind 102 

3.  Ill  Humor  Unsportsmanlike 103 

4.  After  the  Sale 105 

5.  Furnishing  Helpful  Details 106 

6.  The  Right  Impression  at  Leaving 107 

7.  The  "Bill  Starter" 108 

8.  A  Pitfall  to  Be  Avoided 109 

9.  Getting  the  Price Ill 

10.  Emphasize  Service  and  Quality 112 

11.  "Think  It  Over"      .       .       .    ' 113 

12.  The  "Call-Back" 115 

13.  Kinds  of  Selling  Requiring  Several  Interviews      .  116 

14.  Creative  Salesmanship 119 

CHAPTER  VII 

HUMAN  APPEALS  THAT  SELL 

1.  Warm  Friendship  Versus  Cold  Service  .       .       .       .  124 

2.  Securing  Prospect's  Respect  and  Admiration  .       .  124 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  xi 

SECTION  _                                                       PAGH 

3.  Securing  the  Prospect's  Friendship      ....    125 

4.  The  Sincere  Compliment 127 

5.  Appealing  to  Self-Esteem 128 

6.  Acquisitiveness  and  Desire  for  Profit  ....    130 

7.  Love  of  Home  and  Family 132 

8.  Some  Fundamental  Human  Instincts   ....    133 

9.  Two  Avenues  of  Appeal 133 

10.  Are  We  Moved  by  Reason  or  Suggestion.''  .       .       .    134 

11.  Appeal  to  the  Intellect 135 

12.  The  Imaginative  Appeal 136 

13.  Positive   Suggestion 139 

14.  Positive  Versus  Negative  Suggestions  ....    140 

15.  Use  of  Motives  and  Appeals 141 

CHAPTER  VIII 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  CHARACTER  AND  CALIBER 

1.  Part    of    Character    and    Caliber    in    Salesman- 

ship         143 

2.  Thought,  Study  and  Work 143 

3.  Native  Ability 145 

4.  Health 146 

5.  Preparedness 147 

6.  Ambition 151 

7.  Application 152 

8.  Observation 152 

9.  Tact 153 

10.  Concentration 156 

11.  Courage .    157 

12.  Honesty 158 

13.  Confidence 159 

14.  Enthusiasm 162 

15.  Loyalty 163 


xii  SALESMANSHIP 

SECTION  PA6B 

16.  Optimism 164j 

17.  Imagination 165 

18.  Education 165 

19.  Voice 166 

20.  Appearance 167 

21.  Personality  167 

22.  Self-Analysis  and  Improvement 168 

CHAPTER  IX 

THE  SALESMAN'S  DUTIES  AND  RESPONSIBILITIES 

1.  A  Salesman's  Responsibility 172 

2.  Salesman's  Time  and  Its  Use  in  Business  .      .      .  174 

3.  Organizing  a  Town 175 

4.  Planning  the  Day's  Work 177 

5.  Preparing  for  the  Next  Day 178 

6.  Percentage  of  Efficiency 178 

7.  Getting  in  a  Full  Day's  Work 179 

8.  Rainy  Day  Work 182 

9.  Law  of  Averages 182 

10.  Salesman's  Attitude  Toward  Territory    .       .       .    184 

11.  Salesman's  Time  and  Its  Use  Outside  of  Business 

Hours 185 

CHAPTER  X 
COOPERATION,  INFLUENCE  AND  FRIENDSHIP 

1.  Meaning  of  Cooperation 188 

2.  Salesman's  Cooperation  with  the  House   .       .       .    188 

3.  Securing  Valuable  Information 189 

4.  Cooperating  with  Credit  Man  and  with  Advertis- 

ing Manager 190 

5.  Relation  to  Sales  Manager 192 

6.  Cooperation  from  the  House 194 

7.  Salesman's  Cooperation  with  Customers    .       .       .    195 

8.  Serving  as  a  Clearing  House  for  Information  .       .196 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  xiii 

SECTION  PAGE 

9.     Cultivating  Personal  Relations 198 

10.  Cooperation  from  Customers 198 

11.  Value  of  Customer  Cooperation 200 

12.  Customer  as  a  Firm  Representative    ....  201 

13.  Letters  of  Indorsement 202 

14.  Loyalty  and  Cooperation 203 

PART  II 

SALES  MANAGEMENT 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  SALES  MANAGER— HIS  QUALIFICATIONS  AND  DUTIES 

1.  Necessity  for  Efficient  Sales  Management  .       .       .  207 

2.  Object  of  Modern  Sales  Management  ....  209 

3.  Qualifications  of  the  Sales  Manager — Rank  and 

Experience 210 

4.  Love  of  His  Men 211 

5.  Loyalty  to  His  Men 212 

6.  Ability  to  Maintain  Discipline 213 

7.  Organizing  Ability 214 

8.  Broad-Gauged  Knowledge  of  Business        .      .      .  214 

9.  True  Test  of  Efficiency 215 

10.  Necessity  of  Inter-departmental  Cooperation  .       .  216 

11.  Advertising  Department 216 

12.  Production  Department 217 

13.  Credit  Department 219 

14.  Handling  of  Complaints 220 

15.  Service  Department 220 

16.  Finances 221 

17.  How  Cooperation  Is  Secured 222 

CHAPTER  II 
BUILDING  AN  ORGANIZATION— SELECTING  MEN 

1.     Planning  the  Selling  Campaign 225 


xiv  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

SECTION  PAGE 

2.  Testing  Out  Selling  Methods 226 

3.  Pacemaker  and  New  Men 227 

4.  Securing  Salesmen  Thru  Advertisements   .       .       .  228 

5.  Securing  Salesmen  from  the  Inside  Organization  .  229 

6.  Obtaining  Salesmen  from  Competing  Organizations  230 

7.  Obtaining  Salesmen  from  Non-Competing  Organ- 

izations           230 

8.  Obtaining  Salesmen  Thru  Missionary  Work  of  the 

Sales  Force 231 

9.  College  Men  as  Salesmen 232 

10.  Previous  Selling  Experience 233 

11.  Methods  of  Selection 234 

12.  How  Does  the  Salesman  Sell  His  Own  Services?   .  236 

13.  Why  Does  He  Desire  to  Join  the  Organization.''  .  237 

14.  Preliminary  Correspondence 237 

15.  Interviewing  the  Applicant 239 

16.  References 243 

17.  Application  Blanks 243 

18.  Young  Men  Preferred 245 


CHAPTER  III 

BUILDING  AN  ORGANIZATION— TRAINING  SALESMEN 

1.  Need  for  Training  Methods 248 

2.  Man  in  Charge  of  Training 248 

3.  Divisions  of  Training 249 

4.  House   Training;   Preparing  Recruits    for    Class 

Work 250 

5.  Opening  the  Training  Class 252 

6.  Special  Instruction  in  Different  Lines  ....  253 

7.  Studying  Selling  Methods 254 

8.  Talks  from  the  Star  Salesmen 254 

9.  Length  of  Course  and  Size  of  Class     ....  255 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  xv 

SECTION  PAGB 

10.  Field  Training 256 

11.  Essential  Qualifications  of  the  Coach  ....  256 

12.  Principles  of  Coaching 257 

13.  Use  of  a  Special  Coach 258 

14.  Use  of  the  Salesman  in  the  Territory  as  Coach   .  258 

15.  Group  Methods  of  Field  Training 259 

16.  Laying  Out  the  Field 260 

17.  Week's  Program 260 

18.  Cost  Versus  Results 262 


CHAPTER  IV 

SELLING  METHODS  AND  THE  SELLING  EQUIPMENT 

1.  Constant  Necessity  for  New  Methods  ....  26S 

2.  Source  of  New  Selling  Suggestions      ....  263 

3.  Methods  of  Securing  Suggestions 266 

4.  Standard  Selling  Talk  . 267 

5.  Flexible  Use  of  the  Standard  Presentation    .       .  268 

6.  Equipment 270 

7.  Equipment  with  an  Imaginative  Appeal     .       .       .  271 

8.  Visualizing  the  Product 272 

9.  Making   the    Equipment    Compact,   Uniform    and 

Complete 273 

10.  Keeping  the  Equipment  Fresh 273 

11.  Arrangement  and  Use  of  Equipment  ....  274 

12.  Sales  Manual 275 

13.  A  Suggested  Table  of  Contents 276 

14.  Manual  Should  Provide  Information  and  Inspira- 

tion          276 

15.  Form  of  the  Sales  Manual 277 

16.  Sources  of  ^laterial  for  the  Manual  ....  277 

17.  Example  of  Introduction  to  a  Manual      .      .      .  279 

VI— 2 


xvi  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

CHAPTER  V 

COMPENSATION  AND  TERRITORY 

SECTION  PAGE 

1.  What  a  Plan  of  Compensation  Should  Accomplish  281 

2.  Salary  and  Expenses 282 

3.  Methods  of  Handling  Expense  Accounts  Vary      .  282 

4.  Some  Drawbacks  of  the  Salary  Plan  ....  283 

5.  Salary  and  Commission 283 

6.  Advantages  of  the  Salary-Comniission  Plan  .       .  284 

7.  Straight  Commission 285 

8.  Disadvantages  of  the  Str'aight-Commission  Plan  .  286 

9.  Drawing  Account 287 

10.  Promotion  of  Salesmen 289 

11.  Considerations  as  to  Territory 290 

12.  Blocking  Out  Territory 291 

13.  Factors  to  Consider  in  Territory  Readjustments  .  293 

14.  Routing  the  Salesman  in  the  Territory       .       .       .  295 

15.  Apportioning  City  Territory 296 

16.  Minimum  Business  and  Guaranteed  Territory     .  297 

CHAPTER  VI 

SALES  RECORDS 

1.  Sales  Records  and  Statistics 298 

2.  Records  of  Work  in  Territory 300 

3.  Robert  H.  Ingersoll  and  Brother  Territorial  Rec- 

ords          300 

4.  Salesman's  Daily  Report 305 

5.  Salesman's   Daily   Letter 305 

6.  Tabulations   of   Sales 306 

7.  Salesman's  Route  Card  .........  307 

8.  Reports  on  Customers  ....,.,...  307 

9.  Maps 308 

10.  Monthly  Tabulations  of  Sales  ...,.,..  309 

11.  Other  Possible  Information 309 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  xvU 
CHAPTER  VII 

COOPERATION  WITH  SALESMEN 

SECTION  PAGE 

1.  Biggest  Thing  in  Sales  Management   ,       .       .       .311 

2.  "Ginger"  Versus  Cooperation 311 

3.  Visiting  the  Men  in  the  Field 312 

4.  Daily  Letters 313 

5.  Contents  of  Daily  Letter 315 

6.  Special  Paragraphs 316 

7.  Special  Paragraphs  Illustrated 316 

8.  Paragraphs  Used  for  Training 318 

9.  Mottoes  and  Indorsements 320 

10.  House   Organs 320 

11.  Mechanical  Make-Up  of  House  Organ        .       .       .  321 

12.  Name  and  Contents 321 

13.  House  Organ  Illustrations 324 

14.  Object  of  the  House  Organ        .       .       .       .       i       .  325 

15.  Securing  Contributions  to  the  House  Organ   .       .  325 

16.  Getting  Salesmen  to  Contribute 326 

17.  The  House  Organ  Editor .  327 

CHAPTER  VIII 

SALES  CONTESTS 

1.  Contests 329 

2.  Giving  All  a  Chance  to  Win 330 

3.  Making  Quality  of  Business  Count        ....  331 

4.  Prizes 332 

5.  Plans   of  Contests 333 

6.  One  Hundred  Point  Club 333 

7.  The  Baseball  Idea 334 

8.  Other  Examples  of  the  Athletic  Idea  ....  336 

9.  Electing  a  President 337 

10.  An  Annual  Contest  . 337 

11.  Contests  Between  Cities S38 


xviii  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

SECTION  PAGE 

12.  Methods  of  Showing  Standings 339 

13.  Quotas 341 

14.  Method  of  Determining  Quotas 341 

15.  Examples  of  Quota  Prizes 342 

CHAPTER  IX 

SALES  CONVENTIONS 

1.  Conventions 346 

2.  Preparations  for  the  Convention 347 

3.  The  Program .  348 

4.  Typical  Program 348 

5.  Talks  by  the  Salesmen 349 

6.  Securing  Maximum  Benefit  from  the  Convention  .  351 

7.  Bringing  in  the  Men 352 

8.  Entertainment 353 

9.  Convention  Hall 354 

10.  Results  of  the  Convention 354 

11.  Idealizing  the  Business 354 


PART  I 
SALESMANSHIP 


SALESMANSHIP 

CHAPTER  I 

POWER  OF  PERSONAL  SALESMANSHIP 

1.  Importance  of  distribution. — Distribution  is  to- 
day the  most  important  single  problem  in  practically 
every  business.  There  was  a  time,  not  so  many  years 
ago,  when  production  possibilities  and  limitations  de- 
termined the  growth  of  a  business.  The  demand  was 
for  inventive  genius  that  could  devise  new  articles; 
and  for  machines  that  would  produce  such  articles  at 
a  reasonable  cost.  In  many  cases  where  these  things 
were  available,  the  problem  was  to  secure  adequate 
financing  to  carry  on  production.  In  short,  anything 
which  could  be  produced  could  be  sold. 

Today,  exactly  the  reverse  is  true.  Anything 
which  can  be  sold — for  which  there  is  a  market,  or  for 
which  a  market  can  be  created — can  be  produced. 
Reliance  upon  individual  inventive  genius  has,  to  a 
large  extent,  given  way  to  experimental  departments, 
so  called,  manned  by  engineers,  chemists  and  other 
technical  men,  to  which  can  be  referred  the  problem 
of  devising  a  new  article  or  a  machine  for  producing 
it,  with  the  calm  assurance  of  a  satisfactory  result. 
Tne  channels  thru  which  outside  financial  aid  can  be 

3 


4  SALESMANSHIP 

secured  are  fairly  well  defined.  And  while  the 
financier's  old-time  question,  "Can  it  be  produced  at  a 
reasonable  cost?"  is  still  an  important  one,  the  larger 
question  in  his  mind  today  is,  "Can  it  be  marketed 
in  satisfactory  volume  at  a  profit?" 

The  problems  of  production  and  financing  have 
given  way  in  order  of  importance  to  those  of  distri- 
bution, or  marketing. 

2.  Salesmanship's  place  in  field  of  marketing. — 
It  may  be  observed  that  both  advertising  and  personal 
salesmanship  are  subdivisions  of  the  broader  subject 
of  marketing  methods.  It  should  be  understood  th*at 
advertising  and  personal  salesmanship  are  not  ordi- 
narily to  be  looked  upon  as  two  separate  and  distinct 
methods  of  selling  goods.  Generally  they  constitute 
different  parts  of  the  same  big  marketing  plan.  The 
one  supplements  and  helps  the  other;  advertising 
shortens  the  salesman's  labor  by  delivering  part  of  his 
message — by  making  his  firm  and  his  product  known 
and  by  creating  a  confidence  in  both  in  the  mind  of 
the  prospect;  and  personal  salesmanship  makes  the 
advertising  campaign  effective  by  turning  the  interest 
that  has  been  aroused  into  actual  orders. 

3.  Relation  of  advertising  and  salesmanship. — 
Any  impression  that  advertising,  as  a  general  i*ule, 
eliminates  the  necessity  for  personal  salesmanship  is, 
of  course,  erroneous.  Of  the  enormous  smiis  of 
money  spent  each  year  for  advertising,  only  an  ex- 
ceedingly small  amount  is  spent  on  advertising  de- 
signed to  carry  thru  every  development  in  a  sale,  and 


POWER  OF  PERSONAL  SALESMANSHIP    5 

bring  orders  in  response  to  the  ad;  and  these  adver- 
tisements are  ahnost  without  exception  confined  to 
small  space  and  to  articles  of  low  price.     ' 

With  few  exceptions,  all  newspaper  and  periodical 
advertising  and  the  great  bulk  of  direct-by-mail  adver- 
tising must  be  followed  up  by  an  aggressive  personal 
selhng  campaign,  or  by  some  substitute  for  a  personal 
selhng  campaign,  if  the  advertising  campaign  is  to  be 
effective,  and  if  the  interest  aroused  is  to  be  turned 
into  actual  business  for  the  advertised  article.  Any 
substitute  for  personal  salesmanship  at  this  point  will 
inevitably  lower  the  percentage  of  logical  prospects 
or  actual  inquirers  that  are  turned  into  customers. 
The  catalog  of  the  mail-order  house  does  not  secure 
the  same  volume  of  business  from  its  recipients  as  it 
would  if  it  were  accompanied  by  a  salesman's  talk. 
The  percentage  of  prospects  turned  into  customers 
by  a  formal  follow-up  system,  no  matter  how  effec- 
tive, must  inevitably  be  smaller  than  it  would  be  if 
those  same  prospects  were  interviewed  in  person.  It 
is  doubtful  whether  any  method  will  ever  be  devised 
that  will  turn  as  high  a  percentage  of  prospects  into 
customers,  of  inquiries  into  orders,  as  will  personal 
salesmanship,  irrespective  of  whether  the  article  sold 
be  widely  advertised  or  not. 

4.  Importance  of  personal  salesmanship. — Of  the 
two  subdivisions  of  the  field  of  marketing  methods — 
salesmanship  and  advertising — personal  salesmanship 
must  be  looked  upon  as  the  more  necessary.  The 
majority  of  business  concerns  spending  large  appro- 


6  SALESMANSHIP 

priations  in  national  advertising  today  were  firmly 
established  as  business  successes  before  they  entered 
into  advertising  campaigns  of  any  appreciable  size. 
Personal  salesmanship  vi^ith  little  or  no  assistance  in 
the  way  of  advertising  placed  them  in  a  financial  posi- 
tion where  they  could  afford  to  advertise  and  further 
develop  their  business.  This  is  true  of  the  Eastman 
Kodak  Company,  the  Burroughs  Adding  Machine 
Company,  the  National  Cash  Register  Company,  the 
Quaker  Oats  Company,  the  Northwestern  Knitting 
Company  and  hosts  of  other  enterprises.  Tod-ay,  of 
course,  it  has  become  quite  common  for  a  newly  organ- 
ized company  to  launch  a  big  advertising  campaign 
immediately,  and  this  campaign,  if  effective,  will  very 
quickly  establish  a  wide  potential  demand  for  the  con- 
cern's product;  but  it  is  absolutely  essential  that  the 
new  concern  have  also  an  effective  personal-selling 
campaign  under  way  if  it  is  to  continue  in  existence. 
A  newly  established  business  can  get  along  without 
advertising,  but  it  cannot  get  along  without  efficient 
personal  salesmanship. 

This  discussion  of  advertising  and  salesmanship  has 
been  introduced,  however,  only  to  establish  their  rela- 
tion to  each  other  and  their  relative  importance. 
Each  accomplishes  things  that  are  more  or  less  impos- 
sible to  the  other,  advertising  establishing  a  prestige 
and  a  good-will  for  a  product  and  a  concern;  and  per- 
sonal salesmanship  securing  the  expression  of  that 
prestige  and  good-will  in  terms  of  actual  orders. 
Salesmanship  itself  will  be  discussed  here  without  re- 


POWER  OF  PERSONAL  SALESMANSHIP    7 

gard  to  whether  or  not  it  supplements  or  is  aided  by 
an  advertising  campaign ;  the  principles  of  salesman- 
ship remain  the  same  in  either  case. 

5.  Merchandising  machine. — ^JNIerchandise  moves 
so  smoothly  from  the  factory  to  the  ultimate  user  that 
we  cannot  realize  how  complex  is  the  business  mech- 
anism which  makes  the  movement  possible.  A  huge 
factoiy  in  Illinois,  let  us  say,  turns  out  farm  imple- 
ments for  users  who  may  live  anywhere  between 
Maine  and  California,  or  even  in  foreign  countries. 
The  Illinois  manufacturer  cannot  very  well  sell  hoes 
direct  to  the  tinick  farmer  in  Mississippi.  He  sells 
his  hoes  to  a  jobber  in  ^Memphis  who  carries  and  dis- 
tributes the  stock  of  a  number  of  manufacturers. 
The  JNIemphis  wholesaler  sells,  in  turn,  tp  a  retailer 
in  INIeridian,  Mississippi,  who,  since  he  is  close  in 
touch  with  the  wants  of  the  Mississippi  farmer,  carries 
stock  drawn  from  wholesalers  in  jNIemphis,  New  Or- 
leans, iMobile  and  Birmingham,  and  from  manufac- 
turers wiio  sell  to  the  retailers  direct. 

Year  by  year,  new  and  better  appliances  take  their 
places  in  the  Meridian  retailer's  stock.  One  after  an- 
other apjDear  motor  plows,  seeding  machines,  cream 
separators,  milking  machines  and  power  churns,  each 
offering  the  farmer  the  opportunity  to  do  something 
that  he  could  not  do  before  or  to  perform  som^  old 
task  more  efficiently.  Each  new  article  is  produced 
in  one  or  more  plants  and  distributed  over  the  whole 
country,  and  sometimes  over  the  whole  world.  In  the 
case  of  each,  the  wholesalers  and  the  retailers  have  to 


8  SALESMANSHIP 

be  persuaded  to  stock  up  with  the  new  and  improved 
article,  and  must  be  taught  how  to  sell  it.  This  is  the 
work  of  that  part  of  the  business  organism  known  as 
the  merchandising  machine — the  distributing  or  sales 
end  of  the  business. 

6.  Power  furnished  by  the  salesman. — Salesman- 
ship puts  life  and  vitality  into  this  mechanism,  and 
makes  the  goods  move.  The  manufacturer's  sales- 
man shows  the  wholesale  dealer  that  he  can  resell  the 
product  at  a  profit.  The  salesman  of  the  wholesaler 
does  the  same  with  the  retail  dealer.  The  retailer,  or, 
in  some  cases  the  specialty  salesman,  in  turn,  paints 
pictures  of  better  work  done  in  less  time  and  with 
less  effort  by  means  of  the  article  offered,  and  so 
persuades  the  farmer  to  buy.  The  salesman,  then, 
spreads  the  good  news  of  how  to  get  more  and  better 
goods  for  what  one  has  to  spend.  The  progress  of 
civilization  has  meant,  above  everything  else,  that  the 
use  of  the  best  material  things  has  become  more  com- 
mon. The  genius  of  inventors  and  the  daring  of 
capitalists  who  backed  them  have  resulted  in  modern 
mechanical  processes  for  producing  goods  in  large 
quantities.  But  these  processes  could  never  have  been 
made  to  pay,  nor  would  the  cost  of  the  necessities 
and  comforts  of  life  be  as  low  as  it  is,  if  salesmanship 
had  not  provided  the  wide  distribution  that  warrants 
the  production  of  goods  upon  a  vast  scale. 

7.  Va^t  influence  of  salesmanship. — The  salesman, 
then,  is  a  vital  influence  in  the  commercial  world  of 
today.     He  connects  the  man  who  makes  with  the  far- 


POWER  OF  PERSONAL  SALESMANSHIP    9 

away  man  who  uses.  He  is  the  apostle  who  spreads 
the  gospel  of  good  things,  the  universal  use  of  which 
means  the.  progress  of  civilization.  Without  the 
power  that  the  salesman  supplies  to  the  merchandiz- 
ing machine,  the  present  processes  of  specialized  and 
large-scale  production  and  of  world-wide  exchange 
could  not  be  carried  on. 

8.  Dignity  of  the  salesman's  work. — These  various 
sides  of  the  work  of  the  salesman  must  be  seen  in  order 
that  the  importance  and  dignity  of  his  place  in  the 
business  world  may  be  appreciated.  A  century  ago 
it  was  not  uncommon  for  inventors  and  other  men  of 
rare  genius  to  die  in  the  poorhouse.  An  inventor  was 
w^ithout  honor  in  his  own  generation;  it  took  twenty- 
five  or  thirty  years  for  the  public  to  learn  how  to  use 
his  new  article.  Today  the  inventor  turns  his  article 
over  to  the  man  who  can  show  people  their  need  for  it, 
and  soon  a  rising  industry  has  grown  up  around  the 
inventor's  idea.  The  modern  salesman  accomplishes 
in  a  year  what  was  formerly  the  work  of  a  generation. 

In  his  work,  the  salesman  approaches  men  of  vari- 
ous degrees  of  importance.  He  must  possess  the 
ability  to  talk  to  the  small  man  without  condescen- 
sion ;  he  must  be  able  to  meet  the  big  man  on  his  own 
level.  To  this  work  he  must  bring  a  thoro  knowledge 
of  his  goods  and  of  the  policies  of  his  house,  and  a 
capacity  for  intelligent  initiative.  In  the  eyes  of  the 
men  he  meets,  he  is  not  merely  his  house's  representa- 
tive— he  is  the  house  itself. 

9.  Demand  versus  supply  of  salesmen. — A  keen 


10  SALESMANSHIP 

business  man  once  said  that  there  were  two  men  who 
were  of  supreme  importance  to  him;  the  man  on  the 
production  end  who  could  turn  out  the  most  goods  at 
the  lowest  cost,  and  the  man  on  the  selling  end  who 
could  sell  the  most  goods  at  a  fair  profit.  Every  year 
numberless  new  articles  must  be  introduced  and  made 
popular.  New  brands  of  old  articles,  too,  must  be 
placed  upon  the  dealers'  shelves;  and  staples  must 
be  distributed  against  most  severe  competition.  The 
supply  of  men  who  are  able  to  do  this  work  will,  in  all 
probabiHty,  never,  in  normal  times,  equal  the  dem'and. 

One  has  but  to  glance  over  the  classified  advertis- 
ing columns  of  a  high-class  daily  paper  to  realize  how 
insatiable  is  this  demand.  The  man  who  can  sell  has 
a  choice  of  connections  and  can  start  with  a  new  con- 
cern at  a  rate  of  compensation  extremely  rare  in 
other  fields.  It  is  quite  unusual  for  the  salesman  to 
get  into  the  "situation  wanted"  columns.  Because 
of  the  large  demand,  there  is  no  other  field  in  business 
where  a  young  man  can  get  such  a  large  return  on  his 
personal  force  and  character  and  where,  without  the 
possession  of  capital,  he  can  play  so  important  a  part 
in  the  business  world. 

10.  Remuneration  of  salesmen. — The  compensa- 
tion offered  to  salesmen  depends  largely  upon  the 
part  which  they  play  in  creating  a  desire  for  their 
goods.  The  ticket-seller  in  a  New  York  subway  sta- 
tion can  scarcely  be  called  a  salesman  at  all,  for  he 
merely  passes  out  tickets  and  makes  ch'ange.  His 
compensation  is  low  because  the  power  to  persuade 


POWER  OF  PERSONAL  SALESMANSHIP        11 

and  convince  is  not  required  of  him.  The  big  rail- 
roads, however,  employ  a  corps  of  well-trained,  well- 
paid  salesmen  to  solicit  passenger  traffic  for  them; 
to  sell  tickets,  in  other  words.  The  railroad  ticket 
seller  behind  the  wicket  can  inject  real  salesmanship 
into  his  job,  too.  Some  time  ago  a  ticket-seller  for 
one  of  the  big  railroads,  while  visiting  a  large  office  on 
personal  business,  learned  that  ten  of  the  office  force 
were  to  be  sent  to  Buffalo  the  following  night.  The 
firm  had  practically  decided  to  send  the  men  over 
a  competing  road.  The  ticket-seller  immediately 
stepped  into  the  breach,  talked  convincingly  of  the 
superior  equipment  on  his  road,  and  by  promising  his 
jiersonal  services  in  the  matter  of  arrangements  got 
the  business  for  his  railroad.  Tho  off  duty,  he  went 
immediately  to  his  company's  office,  secured  and  de- 
livered the  necessary  tickets  and  can-ied  away  with 
him  a  check  for  over  $100.  That  was  salesmanship 
of  a  high  order. 

11.  Demand  for  retail  salesmen. — The  old  idea 
that  any  one  can  sell  behind  a  counter  is  fast  giving 
way  to  a  keen  reahzation  of  the  value  of  salesmanship 
in  retail  selling.  Selling  behind  the  counter  is  largely 
what  the  individual  makes  it.  There  are  those  who 
simply  supply  what  is  asked  for,  and  that  none  too 
graciously;  who  do  not  take  the  trouble  to  study  the 
line  they  are  selling,  and  who  give  no  thought  to  de- 
vising ways  of  increasing  their  sales.  There  is,  on 
the  other  hand,  a  rapidly  growing  class  who  have 
made  it  a  point  to  become  thoroly  acquainted  with 


12  SALESMANSHIP 

their  goods;  who  by  their  frankness,  courtesy  and 
knowledge  win  the  confidence  of  then-  customers  and 
sometimes  acquire  a  following.  They  give  timely  ad- 
vice to  their  customers,  and  are  able  to  sell  a  better 
class  of  goods  than  the  customer  intended  to  buj^; 
they  can  close  a  sale  when  the  customer  is  in  doubt 
and  plan  methods  of  awakening  interest  in  lines  other 
than  those  the  customer  had  in  mind  when  he  entered 
the  store.  The  demand  for  this  latter  class  is  so  great 
that  the  larger,  more  progressive  retailers  thruout 
the  country  are  establishing  training  schools  to  de- 
velop this  kind  of  salespeople. 

The  selling  of  cloaks  and  suits  and  of  men's  cloth- 
ing at  retail  is  supposed  to  require  a  higher  order  of 
salesmanship  than  the  selUng  of  smaller,  lower-priced 
articles.  The  centering  of  desire  on  a  particular  gar- 
ment and  the  closing  of  a  sale  is  a  difficult  accomplish- 
ment. The  compensation  is  correspondingly  large. 
The  selling  of  expensive  furs  and  imported  gowns 
calls  for  a  still  higher  order  of  ability.  Rug  salesmen 
in  the  higher  class  department  stores  regularly  close 
sales  running  into  three  and  four  figures  and  are 
usually  compensated  on  a  commission  basis.  It  is  not 
uncommon  for  their  compensation  to  go  as  high  as 
three,  four,  or  five  thousand  dollars  a  year.  As  we 
advance  in  the  scale  of  retail  selling,  the  discrepancy, 
as  regards  well-trained  salesmen,  between  the  demand 
and  the  supply  increases,  and  remuneration  increases 
in  proportion. 

12.  Salesmen  who  seek  the  buyer. — ^We  come  next 


POWER  OF  PERSONAL  SALESMANSHIP   13 

to  the  traveling  salesman  who  goes  to  the  buyer. 
Here  we  have  first,  the  commercial  traveler,  repre- 
senting a  wholesale  house  and  engaged  in  disposing 
of  staples  against  strong  competition.  A  man  who 
can  sell  in  this  field  is  an  asset  to  a  firm ;  one  who  can- 
not is  distinctly  a  liability.  The  demand  for  sales- 
men who  will  be  assets  far  exceeds  the  supply.  Then, 
we  have  the  final  and  highest  type  of  salesman,  the 
man  who  is  selling  a  specialty  for  which  an  entirely 
new  demand  must  be  created.  We  must  include  here 
the  promotor,  who  assembles  and  plans  a  new  enter- 
prise and  interests  capital  in  it.  The  demand  for 
men  capable  of  this  creative  salesmanship  is  practically 
unlimited.  Compensation,  therefore,  is  also  un- 
limited. Men  have  been  known  to  make  a  fortune 
in  a  single  transaction;  and  it  is  not  at  all  extraor- 
dinary for  men  of  this  type  to  earn  from  ten  to  fifty 
thousand  dollars  a  year. 

13.  Opportiuiities  in  salesmanship. — A  man  who 
can  sell  will  command  several  times  the  salary  that  he 
could  earn  in  routine  or  clerical  work,  or  even  in  some 
important  constructive  work  pertaining  to  produc- 
tion, accounts  or  finance.  There  are  two  main  rea- 
sons for  this.  First,  the  executive  head  of  a  business 
is  very  likely  to  think  of  his  sales  department  in  terms 
of  income  and  profits  and  of  his  other  departments  in 
terms  of  outo-o  and  expense,  and,  as  a  result,  is  likely 
to  be  more  liberal  in  his  plans  for  compensation  in 
the  sales  department.  Second,  the  actual  worth  to  a 
firm  of  a  man  in  any  of  these  other  fields  cannot  be 

VI— 3 


14.  SALESMANSHIP 

accurately  determined,  but  there  is  nothing  uncertain 
about  the  worth  of  a  salesman  to  his  firm.  It  can  be 
figured  out  in  actual  dollars  and  cents. 

14.  What  the  salesman  learns. — Hugh  Chalmers, 
who  was  formerly  known  as  one  of  America's  fore- 
most salesmen,  says  that  a  man  should  always  view  his 
comj^ensation  from  two  angles.  First,  what  can  I 
earn?  Second,  what  can  I  learn?  From  the  latter 
point  of  view,  salesmanship  is  especially  attractive. 
The  salesman  comes  in  contact  with  a  wide  circle 
of  business  men.  He  acquires  the  ability  to  meet  men 
and  to  address  them.  He  gets  a  first-hand  knowl- 
edge of  the  big  business  problem  of  distribution.  He 
learns  to  observe  the  business  methods  of  others.  He 
develops  poise  and  self-confidence.  In  short,  he  ac- 
quires the  strong  positive  quaUties  that  make  for  suc- 
cess in  business. 

A  great  many  big  business  executives  began  as 
salesmen.  A  personal  knowledge  of  conditions  on 
the  firing  line  is  invaluable  to  the  man  who  is  direct- 
ing operations  from  a  private  office.  The  salesman, 
therefore,  who  takes  advantage  of  every  opportunity 
for  becoming  a  broad-gauged  business  man  is  prepar- 
ing himself  for  an  executive  position,  either  in  the 
house  for  which  he  is  selling  or  in  a  business  of  his 
own  building.  John  North  Willys  came  in  from  the 
road  where  he  had  been  selling  automobiles  for  an- 
other concern  to  establish  the  Willys-Overland  Com- 
pany of  which  he  is  the  head  today. 

With  all  its  opportunities,  selling,  as  a  great  sales 


POWER  OF  PERSONAL  SALESMANSHIP   15 

manager  has  put  it,  is  the  most  fascinating  game  in 
the  world;  and  it  is  a  game  of  brain,  pure  and  simple. 
It  satisfies  man's  inherent  love  of  a  contest,  which  is 
inspired  by  the  hazard  of  defeat  and  the  chance  of  big 
victory.  To  sum  up,  the  man  who  can  sell  is  a  suc- 
cess— others  mai/  be. 

15.  Universality  of  selling. — Salesmanship,  in  its 
broadest  sense,  is  essentially  the  selling  of  one's  point 
of  view — the  ability  to  start  with  the  other  fellow's 
point  of  view  and  to  lead  his  mind  to  the  viewpoint  of 
the  seller.  When  one  individual  endeavors  to  influ- 
ence another  to  adopt  a  certain  mental  attitude  or 
to  act  in  a  certain  way,  he  is  practising  salesmanship. 
Every  one  can  profit  by  a  knowledge  of  the  principles 
of  salesmanship  and  of  successful  selling  methods, 
using  the  terms  in  this  bro'ad  sense. 

Every  one,  at  one  time  or  another,  sells  his  services. 
If  we  can  present  our  qualifications  in  such  a  way  as 
to  convince  the  other  fellow,  we  shall  sell  our  services 
more  surely,  and  possibly  at  a  higher  figure,  than  if 
we  are  uncertain  in  our  methods.  The  accountant 
v/ho  would  become  a  general  auditor  would  do  well 
to  think  of  salesmanship  before  presenting  his  proposi- 
tion. The  advertising  manager  must  "sell"  his  board 
of  directors  on  the  efficacy  of  an  advertising  cam- 
paign; and  "sell"  them,  too,  on  the  necessity  of  an  ad- 
vertising appropriation.  The  shop  superintendent 
who  desires  improved  equipment  in  his  plant  must 
"sell"  the  board  of  directors.  The  corporation  treas- 
urer, when  he  goes  to  borrow  funds,  must  "sell"  the 


16  SALESMANSHIP 

bank  on  his  proposition.  The  great  lawyer,  pleading 
for  a  life  before  a  jury,  is  simply  trying  to  "sell"  that 
jury  his  point  of  view.  Even  a  great  statesman 
might  well  be  compared  to  a  high-class  specialty  sales- 
man. Every  man,  then,  has  a  vital  interest  in  that 
knowledge  of  the  human  mind  and  that  practice  of 
persuasion  in  which  lies  the  essence  of  salesmanship. 

16.  Selling  ability  not  necessarily  inherent. — E.  St. 
Elmo  Lewis  tells  a  story  of  a  director  of  salesmen  who 
was  saying  to  him  one  day:  "No,  you  can't  teach  a 
man  salesmanship — it  has  to  be  born  in  him."  The 
speaker  had  been  watching  one  of  his  men  in  the  front 
part  of  the  store  demonstrate  a  mechanical  device. 
AVhen  the  customer  had  gone  he  stepped  quickly  for- 
ward. "Bill,"  said  he,  "I  notice  that  you  did  all  the 
demonstrating  and  all  the  talking.  Why  didn't  you 
let  your  prospect  handle  the  machine — operate  it? 
I3y  letting  him  play  with  it,  you  would  have  held  his 
interest  and  created  in  him  a  desire  to  own  the  ma- 
chine. Instead  of  that,  he  walked  out  on  you."  He 
had  laid  down  a  definite  principle  of  salesmanship. 
This  illustration  serves  to  indicate  what  little  thought 
the  average  business  man  is  giving  to  the  subject  when 
he  says  that  salesmen  are  born  and  cannot  be  made. 

There  is  a  ffreat  deal  of  discussion  as  to  whether  or 
not  there  is  a  science  of  salesmanship.  We  do  not 
have  to  decide  that  question  here.  But  even  if  we 
leave  it  entirely  open,  it  is  quite  clear  that  we  can 
apply  scientific  methods  to  the  subject — in  other 
words,  we  can  approach  the  subject  with  an  unbiased 


POWER  OF  PERSONAL  SALESMANSHIP   IT 

mind,  delve  into  the  experience  of  numerous  men  who 
have  sold  goods,  and  draw  from  that  investigation  cer- 
tain fundamental  principles.  An  art  is  defined  as  the 
practical  application  of  knowledge  or  natural  ability. 
In  adding  to  our  natural  selling  ability  the  knowledge 
of  the  principles  of  salesmanship  that  w^e  have  gath- 
ered by  the  scientific  methods  described,  and  applying 
those  principles  to  the  practice  of  selling,  we  are  prac- 
tising the  art  of  salesmanship.  We  are  then  doing 
nothing  more  nor  less  than  adding  to  our  own  experi- 
ence in  the  selling  field  the  experience  of  other  suc- 
cessful salesmen. 

17.  Knowledge  plus  practice. — The  trained  engi- 
neer, fresh  from  his  technical  school,  is  probably  not 
so  good  a  bridge-builder  as  the  foreman  who  has 
worked  at  bridge-building  since  he  was  a  boy.  Give 
tlie  engineer  five  years  of  experience,  however,  and  he 
will  be  the  better  bridge-builder  of  the  tw^o,  simply 
because  he  has  at  his  disposal  both  his  own  experience 
and  the  experience  of  the  entire  engineering  pro- 
fession. The  salesman,  too,  needs  practice.  He 
needs  his  own  experience  to  tie  to  the  experience  of 
others.  But  while  we  emphasize  the  value  of  ex- 
perience we  must  not  under-emphasize  the  importance 
of  instruction  in  principles.  The  mediocre  man  can 
be  improved  by  instruction;  the  good  man  can  be 
made  better  by  instruction;  and  the  best  of  men  can 
be  considerably  strengthened  by  instruction.  The 
great  salesman  who  is  born  and  not  made  is  greater 
at  forty  than  he  was  at  twentj^  because  he  is  richer  by 


18  SALESMANSHIP 

twenty  years  of  experience.  A  study  of  the  princi- 
ples of  salesmanship  will  in  a  measure  take  the  place 
of  experience  and  thus  shorten  that  period  between 
twenty  and  forty,  and  bring  the  ambitious  man  more 
quickly  to  his  goal. 

REVIEW 

Discuss  the  growing  importance  of  the  selling  end  of  business. 

Discuss  the  relation  of  personal  salesmanship  to  the  broader 
field  of  marketing  and  to  advertising. 

What  is  the  salesman's  influence.'' 

Enumerate  the  opportunities  of  salesmanship. 

Discuss  the  opportunities  in  retail  selling. 

Discuss  the  demand  versus  the  supply  of  salesmen. 

Why  is  a  knowledge  of  salesmanship  valuable  to  those  other 
than  salesmen  .-^ 


CHAPTER  II 

STAPLES,  BRANDED  STAPLES  AND  SPECIALTIES 

1.  Divisions  of  selling. — Selling  activities  may  be 
classified  from  several  different  standpoints,  each  of 
them  more  or  less  important.  One  division  may  be 
made  according  to  whether  the  goods  are  sold  directly 
or  the  sale  is  made  by  means  of  a  sample,  a  catalog  or 
an  oral  description.  Except  in  rare  instances,  goods 
are  sold  at  retail  by  the  first  method.  Bonds  are  usu- 
ally sold  by  oral  description.  The  traveling  salesman, 
as  a  rule,  sells  by  sample  and  sometimes,  in  the  case  of 
large  technical  appliances,  by  model.  If  models  are 
not  used  in  the  latter  case,  the  selling  must  necessarily 
be  done  by  catalog. 

Another  division  might  be  made  according  to  the 
class  of  buj^er,  whether  wholesaler,  retailer  or  con- 
sumer. 

2.  Where  buyer  seehs  seller  and  vice  versa. — Then, 
we  may  make  a  third  classification  according  to 
whether  the  buyer  goes  to  the  seller,  or  the  seller  goes 
to  the  buyer.  Broadly  sjieaking,  most  retail  selling 
would  be  of  the  first  kind,  and  most  wholesale  and 
specialty  selling  of  the  second. 

It  is  not  uncommon  in  the  case  of  a  specialty  for  the 
buyer  to  take  the  initiative  and  go  to  the  seller.     Pro- 

19 


20  SALESMANSHIP 

gressive  retailers  of  foodstuffs,  on  the  other  hand,  fre- 
quently take  the  initiative  these  days  in  going  to  the 
buyer  by  soliciting  orders  over  the  telephone.  Buyers 
of  women's  apparel  go  to  the  seller  when  they  make 
their  yearly  visits  to  Paris  for  their  importations. 
New  York  lace  houses  have  salesmen  traveling  over 
the  country  calling  on  lace  buyers.  Twice  a  year, 
however,  the  salesmen  are  called  into  New  York  for 
a  month  to  meet  these  same  buyers  who  have  come  to 
New  York  to  look  over  what  the  metropolis  has  to 
offer  and  to  get  their  stock  of  spring  or  fall  fashions. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  at  this  time  that  the  largest 
part  of  the  business  is  done.  The  intermediate  visits 
of  the  salesmen  to  the  distant  buyers  merely  serve 
to  keep  the  buyers  stocked  up  and  supplied  with  new 
styles  between  their  visits  to  New  York. 

3.  Single  versus  repeated  sales. — A  better  defined 
division  of  the  selling  activities  is  made  according  to 
whether  the  salesman  sells  a  man  once  or  sells  him 
repeatedly  and  I'egularly.  A  salesman  handling  store 
fixtures  would  come  under  the  first  subdivision,  while 
a  grocery  salesman  calling  upon  his  trade  regularly 
would  come  under  the  second.  It  is  quite  possible,  of 
course,  that  the  fixture  man  might  make  sales  to  the 
same  man  on  several  different  occasions,  but  these 
sales  would  be  at  long  and  irregular  intervals.  He  is 
therefore  under  the  necessity  of  seeing  new  people 
constantly  in  order  to  keep  going. 

This  classification  is  more  important  than  the  pre- 
vious ones,  because  it  is  one  that  may  well  be  consid- 


STAPLES  AND  SPECIALTIES  21 

ered  by  the  salesman  in  making  a  connection.  Where 
one  sells  a  man  but  once,  it  is  important  to  get  his 
friendship  and  confidence  quickly,  which  means  that 
the  salesman  must  have  a  personality  that  makes  a 
quick  impression.  The  most  important  requirement, 
on  the  other  hand,  in  a  representative  who  calls  on 
trade  regularly,  is  that  he  shall  have  a  personality  with 
lasting  qualities.  Whether  he  can  "get  under  a  man's 
skin"  quickly  is  of  secondary  importance.  Salesmen 
and  sales  managers  may  well  bear  this  distinction  in 
mind. 

4.  Staples  and  specialties. — By  far  the  most  im- 
portant classification  of  selling  is  that  based  on  the 
nature  of  the  commodity  sold;  namely,  whether  it  be 
a  staple  or  a  specialt}^  A  staple  may  be  defined  as 
a  commodity  necessary  to  the  carrying  on  of  the  pri- 
mary functions  of  living,  under  existing  standards. 
Sugar,  coffee,  cotton  goods  and  shoes  are  staples. 
Since  there  is  a  universal  demand  for  such  commodi- 
ties, it  is  not  required  of  the  salesman  to  create  a 
demand  before  the  sale  can  be  made. 

A  specialty  may  be  defined  as  an  article  for  which 
there  may  exist  a  potential  demand  or  for  which  it  is 
possible  to  create  a  demand,  but  which  has  not  been 
generally  incorporated  into  the  people's  daily  life. 
Phonographs,  conducted  tours  and  automobiles  are 
examples  of  specialties.  People  must  be  educated  to 
want  these  things  and  a  desire  for  them  must  be 
created  in  most  individual  sales.  It  might  be  noted  in 
passing  that  automobiles  are  just  becoming  staple  as 


22  SALESMANSHIP 

regards  people  who  can  afford  to  purchase  and  main- 
tain them  and  for  those  who  use  them  in  a  business 
way. 

5.  Selling  specialties. — As  the  definitions  would 
indicate,  the  bulk  of  the  expenditures  of  the  country's 
households  are  for  staples.  Many  households  and 
individuals,  however,  have  a  surplus  left  after  they 
have  satisfied  their  requirements  for  staple  goods. 
With  the  advance  of  prosperity,  this  surplus  grows 
larger. 

The  sellers  of  specialties  compete  keenly  for  this 
surplus.  The  competition,  in  the  case  of  the  goods 
themselves,  is  not  only  between  two  similar  special- 
ties, such  as  two  different  makes  of  player-pianos,  but 
between  different  kinds  of  specialties  as  well;  if  the 
sm-plus  is  spent  for  an  automobile,  consideration  of 
the  plaj^er-piano  will  be  put  off  for  a  year.  Be- 
cause of  this  double  competition  and  because  of  the 
necessity  of  creating  a  compelling  desire  and  making 
a  strong  close  in  each  individual  case,  the  specialty 
salesman  must  be  of  a  high  type  and  earns  a  corre- 
spondingly large  remuneration. 

6.  Specialties  become  staples. — A  great  many  of 
the  staples  of  today  were  the  specialties  of  yesterday. 
Adam  Smith  says  that  in  1775  both  men  and  women 
in  England  wore  shoes;  in  Scotland,  only  men  wore 
them;  and  in  France,  neither  men  nor  women  wore 
them.  In  England,  then,  shoes  were  a  staple  com- 
modity; in  Scotland,  they  were  staple  among  men,  but 
a  specialty  among  women;  and  in  I" ranee,  they  were 


STAPLES  AND  SPECIALTIES  23 

a  specialty  for  both  men  and  women.  That  is,  there 
existed  no  demand  for  them  among  the  women  of 
Scotland,  or  among  the  men  or  women  of  France. 
The  people  had  to  be  educated  to  their  use;  a  fairly 
general  desire  for  shoes  had  to  be  created.  Even 
such  common  articles  as  toothbrushes,  soap  and  un- 
derclothing have  not  always  been  staples,  and  they 
are  staples  today  only  in  the  more  civilized  countries. 
Their  introduction  in  some  foreign  parts  is  only  be- 
ginning. 

There  may  be  some  who  will  maintain  that  goods 
are  not  manufactiu*ed  befofe  there  is  a  demand  for 
them,  but  are  produced  only  in  response  to  a  very 
definite  need.  Those  who  have  studied  the  history  of 
selling,  however,  realize  that  the  demand  has  to  be 
manufactured  just  as  surely  as  do  the  goods.  For  a 
long  time  railroad  men  laughed  at  Westinghouse  and 
his  air-brakes  with  which  he  proposed  to  stop  trains 
with  wind.  A  Boston  mob  destroyed  the  first  sewing 
machine  on  the  ground  that  it  would  throw  the  people 
out  of  work.  It  took  a  long  campaign  of  education 
to  convince  people  that  Edison's  electric  lights  were 
safe,  practical,  and  better  than  gas.  The  struggle  of 
the  telephone  for  recognition  is  still  fresh  in  the  minds 
of  men  of  this  generation.  Xo  business  man  can  now 
imagine  how  he  could  get  along  without  a  telephone, 
but  it  took  real  salesmanship  to  convince  him  in  the 
early  days  that  there  was  any  advantage  connected 
with  it.  It  is  said  that  one  of  the  first  Chicago  firms 
to  install  telephones  subsequently  had  them  removed 


24.  SALESMANSHIP 

because  the  frequent  phone  calls  from  customers  dis- 
turbed the  clerks. 

The  process  by  which  a  specialty  becomes  staple 
goes  on  continually.  In  the  next  few  years  we  may 
expect  to  see  the  vacuum  cleaner,  the  electrical  wash- 
ing machines,  ironing  machines  and  dish  washers,  just 
as  common  as  the  sewing  machine  is  today.  The 
low-price  automobile,  too,  bids  fair  to  become  a  staple 
product.  The  milestones  of  civilization  are  marked 
by  the  conversion  of  specialties  into  staples  thru  the 
educating  work  of  salesmen  and  of  advertising.  The 
degrees  of  civilization  in  two  countries  may  be  com- 
pared by  noting  to  what  extent  things  that  have  be- 
come staples  in  the  one  are  still  specialties  in  the  other. 

7.  Branded  staples. — In  the  classification  which  we 
are  now  discussing,  that  is  marked  by  the  nature  of 
the  product  sold,  there  is  a  third  class  of  commodity 
to  be  considered,  the  branded  staple.  The  branded 
staple  may  be  defined  as  a  staple  commodity,  put  up 
in  a  standard  package,  under  a  distinctive  brand 
name,  usually  sold  at  a.  standard  price,  carrying  a 
guarantee  of  quality  and  in  many  cases  widely  adver- 
tised. Not  so  many  years  ago  the  corner  grocer 
bought  his  oatmeal  and  other  cereals  in  bulk  and 
scooped  them  from  a  bin  under  his  counter  for  liis 
customers.  Today  he  hands  the  customer  a  package. 
Formerly  he  bought  his  crackers  by  the  barrel.  To- 
day the  National  Biscuit  Company  and  the  Loose- 
Wiles  Biscuit  Company  have  largely  wiped  out  the 
sale  of  crackers  in  bulk  and  instituted  the  sale  of 


STAPLES  AND  SPECIALTIES  25 

crackers  in  sealed  packages.  Flour,  too,  was  for- 
merly weighed  out  from  the  gi'ocer's  bin.  Today  it 
is  handed  to  the  customer  in  the  bags  in  which  the 
grocer  receives  it,  branded  with  the  maker's  name. 

This  tendenc}^  toward  the  production  of  branded 
staples  is  one  of  the  most  marked  features  of  modern 
business.  Coffee,  tho  still  largely  sold  in  bulk,  is  fast 
being  put  into  the  branded  staple  class  by  the  Ar- 
buckles  and  others.  The  American  Sugar  Refining 
Company  has  made  popular  the  sale  and  assured  the 
prestige  of  both  block  and  granulated  sugar  in  pack- 
ages. jNIen  no  longer  ask  for  socks;  they  call  for 
Holeproof  Hosiery  or  Onyx  or  some  other  brand. 
They  ask  for  shirts  under  a  brand  name  that  assures 
their  fulness,  cut  and  quality.  Clothing,  shoes  and 
hats  are  fast  coming  to  be  bought  in  the  same  way. 

8.  Branded  staple  and  the  salesman. — Altho  the 
principal  credit  for  the  prestige  of  the  branded  staple 
must  be  given  to  national  advertising,  there  are  some 
interesting  problems  of  personal  selling  in  connec- 
tion with  branded  staples.  The  brand  imparts  to 
what  has  been  a  purely  staple  product  something  of 
the  nature  of  a  specialt5\  New  brands  must  compete 
with  other  brands  which  have  been  established  previ- 
ously, with  jobbers'  private  brands,  and  with  the  old 
bulk  goods,  which  have  the  advantage  of  price.  In 
the  face  of  this  condition,  the  new  brand  must  be  estab- 
lished by  the  joint  work  of  advertising  and  personal 
salesmanship.  Advertising  aims  to  divert  the  exist- 
ing demand  of  the  ultimate  consumer  to  this  par- 


26  SALESMANSHIP 

ticular  brand.  The  salesman  is  depended  upon  to 
win  and  educate  the  jobber  and  the  retailer.  Since 
it  is  important  that  the  brands  get  fair  distribution  in 
order  to  profit  by  the  advertising,  and  since  the  jobber 
and  the  retailer  are  loath  to  stock  up  until  they  have 
felt  the  actual  demand,  a  high  order  of  selling  ability 
is  necessary  in  the  early  stages. 

Sometimes  the  need  for  creative  salesmanship  is 
lessened  as  a  brand  becomes  established  with  the  pub- 
lic. A  constant  public  demand,  kept  alive  by  na- 
tional advertising,  makes  it  necessary  for  jobbers  and 
retailers  to  carry  the  branded  staple,  and  it  keeps  mov- 
ing more  or  less  automatically  thru  the  channels  of 
trade.  The  distribution  efforts  are  likely  to  be  con- 
fined largely  to  advertising,  which  reaches  beyond  the 
jobber  and  retailer  to  the  ultimate  user  of  the  goods. 
The  man  selling  an  estabhshed  brand  staple  must 
watch  himself  carefully  lest  he  deteriorate  ii^to  a  mere 
taker  of  orders. 

9.  Selling  staples. — The  difficulty  of  specialty  sell- 
•  ing  and  the  problems  to  be  met  in  selling  branded 
staples  have  been  discussed,  and  it  has  been  shown 
that  the  selling  of  pure  staples  is  likely  to  be  simpler. 
It  should  be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that  staple  sell- 
ing now  requires  more  real  salesmanship  than  in 
former  days,  when  competition  was  less  keen.  Let  us 
take  the  wholesale  grocery  salesman  as  a  typical  dis- 
tributor of  staple  products.  A  generation  ago,  retail 
grocers  in  most  communities  were  called  upon  by  the 
representatives  of  not  more  than  two  or  three  whole- 


STAPLES  AND  SPECIALTIES  27 

sale  grocery  firms.  The  retailer  divided  his  business 
among  these  few  competitors  and  kept  them  all 
happy.  Moreover,  in  case  of  a  pinch,  the  wholesale- 
grocery  salesman  was  usually  able  to  offer  price  con- 
cessions. Today  that  same  retailer  is  called  upon  by 
twenty  or  thirty  wholesale-grocery  salesmen.  They 
all  sell  about  the  same  product  at  about  the  same 
l^rices  and  price-cutting  is  fairly  well  eliminated. 
This  illustration  is  fairly  typical  of  the  tendency  in 
all  staple  lines.  To  get  business  in  paying  quantities 
under  these  conditions,  and  to  increase  that  business 
from  year  to  year,  requires  selling  ability  of  a  high 
order. 

10.  Factors  in  a  sale. — There  are  three  factors  in 
every  sale:  the  buyer,  the  seller  and  the  commodity. 
Having  seen  into  what  classes  the  commodity  may 
fall,  we  are  ready  to  consider  methods  of  reaching 
and  appealing  to  the  buyer;  to  analyze  the  seller  and 
determine  what  qualifications  he  must  possess  and  ac- 
quire if  he  is  to  be  successful;  and  to  consider  ways  of 
building  an  effective  selling  talk  and  demonstration 
for  the  particular  commodity  he  is  to  sell. 

REVIEW 

Enumerate  and  discuss  briefly  the  divisions  that  may  be  made 
of  selling  work  from  different  viewpoints. 

Distinguish  between  the  terms  staple  and  specialty. 

Discuss  the  branded  staple  and  the  conditions  under  which  it 
is  usually  sold. 


CHAPTER  III 

SELLING  PROCESS— PRELIMINARY  TO  THE 
INTERVIEW 

1.  Definition  of  a  sale. — From  a  legal  point  of 
view,  to  sell  is  to  transfer  property  to  another,  or  to 
contract  to  do  so,  for  a  valuable  consideration,  espe- 
cially money.  From  a  business  point  of  view,  the  sale 
should,  in  addition,  represent  a  profit  to  the  owner  of 
the  goods.  Not  much  salesmanship  is  required  to 
give  goods  away  or  to  sell  below  cost. 

There  is  still  another  requisite.  A  sale,  as  a  legiti- 
mate phase  of  commerce,  should  represent  a  profit  or 
an  advantage  to  the  buyer.  Some  treatises  on  selling 
would  lead  one  to  believe  that  the  average  buyer  is  a 
putty-minded  person  before  whom  the  scientifically 
instructed  salesman  makes  a  few  mysterious  passes 
and  thus  hypnotizes  him  into  signing  an  order  whether 
he  can  use  the  commodity  to  advantage  or  not.  The 
reminiscences  of  some  salesmen  would  almost  lead  one 
to  believe  that  most  of  their  sales  are  made  thru  a  sys- 
tem of  legerdemain  in  which  no  consideration  whatever 
is  given  to  the  question  whether  or  not  the  buyer  can 
use  the  goods  to  advantage.  One  wonders  liow  men 
who  are  so  easily  persuaded  to  make  disadvantageous 
purchases  ever  become  sufficiently  successful  to  be  able 

28 


PRELIMINARY  TO  THE  INTERVIEW  29 

to  buy  anything.  Of  course,  the  truth  is  that  the 
salesman  has  really  taken  the  buyer's  point  of  view, 
and,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  has  made  the  buyer 
see  that  it  is  to  his  advantage  to  buy. 

It  is  recognized  today  to  be  both  poor  ethics  and 
bad  business  to  sell  a  person  anything  that  he  cannot 
use  to  advantage;  and  most  salesmen  realize  that  to 
overstock  a  dealer,  altho  it  may  show  fine  powers  of 
persuasion,  will  do  no  permanent  good  to  himself,  his 
customer  or  his  house.  A  true  sale,  then,  is  one  in 
which  there  is  a  threefold  profit — to  the  house,  to  the 
buyer  and  to  the  seller. 

2.  Development  of  a  sale. — In  the  development  of 
the  selling  process,  there  are  four  stages.  First, 
the  salesman  must  secure  the  prospect's  undivided 
attention.  Second,  this  attention  must  be  sustained 
and  developed  into  interest.  Third,  this  interest 
must  be  ripened  into  desire.  And  fourth,  all  linger- 
ing doubts  must  be  removed  from  the  prospect's  mind, 
and  there  must  be  implanted  there  a  firm  resolu- 
tion to  buy;  in  other  words,  the  sale  must  be  closed. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  that  these  developments  are 
distinct  in  every  sale;  or  even  that  they  are  always 
present.  A  transaction  involving  a  large  amount 
may  be  closed  by  the  briefest  sort  of  offer  and  ac- 
ceptance. We  are  here  rather  taking  into  considera- 
tion every  development  which  may  be  present  in  the 
selling  process,  considering,  so  to  speak,  a  perfect 
model,  something  from  which  to  measure  variations. 

In  every  successful  sale  there  is  another  element,  con- 

vi— 4 


30  SALESMANSHIP 

fidence.  Unlike  the  four  elements  previously  men- 
tioned, confidence  does  not  develop  into  another 
distinct  phase  of  the  selling  process.  It  is  rather  the 
base  made  stronger  by  the  interview  upon  which  the 
completed  sale  must  be  built. 

Before  a  sale  is  possible,  the  buyer  must  be  ap- 
proached. The  approach,  then,  tho  not  an  integral 
part  of  the  selling  process,  is  a  necessary  and  difficult 
preliminary.  It  may  be  divided  into  two  parts ;  prep- 
aration for  the  interview,  accomphshed  by  securing  a 
knowledge  of  the  prospect;  and  getting  in  to  see  the 
prospect.  To  keep  these  various  elements  in  mind  is 
necessaiy  to  an  intelligent  study  of  the  subject  of 
salesmanship,  and  will  be  helpful  in  making  an  actual 
sale. 

3.  Preparation  for  the  interview. — Many  sales- 
men open  their  interviews  smoothly  by  approaching  a 
prospect  on  his  "blind  side";  that  is,  bj^  talking  to  him 
of  something  in  which  he  is  deeply  interested.  Even 
tho  a  salesman  has  a  standard  presentation,  he  will 
find  it  advantageous  to  modify  it  or  add  to  it,  if  neces- 
sary, in  such  a  manner  as  to  tie  his  proposition  closely 
to  the  prospect's  interests.  In  other  words,  the  sales- 
man's talk  must  be  suited  to  the  prospect.  This 
means  that  he  should  know  as  much  as  possible  about 
the  prospect  before  approaching  him.  The  astute 
salesman  gathers  a  great  deal  of  valuable  information 
before  he  ever  faces  his  prospect,  just  as  the  general 
provides  himself  with  topographical  maps  of  the  coun- 
try over  which  his  aiTny  is  to  operate.     Oftentimes,  a 


I 
PRELIMINARY  TO  THE  INTERVIEW  31 

great  part  of  his  knowledge  must  be  secured  by  scruti- 
nizing his  man  as  he  crosses  the  office  floor.  He  will 
secure  some  knoM^edge  during  the  interview,  of  course, 
by  getting  the  prosj^ect  to  talk. 

4.  Studying  the  prospect. — Some  men  are  op- 
posed to  change;  others  welcome  new  things.  The 
college  graduate's  viewpoint  is  different  from  that  of 
the  self-trained  man.  One  prospect  is  young  and  am- 
bitious to  progress ;  another  is  getting  old  and  is  think- 
ing of  retiring.  One  is  wealthy  and  lives  modestly; 
another  owns  a  large  house  and  drives  a  car.  One 
plays  golf ;  another  is  a  tennis  enthusiast  or  a  baseball 
"fan."  The  nature  of  your  individual  business  wdll 
dictate  just  what  particular  information  you  most  de- 
sire. Bear  in  mind  that  after  this  information  is  se- 
cured it  may  be  better  not  to  let  the  prospect  know 
that  you  are  in  possession  of  it,  but  to  get  him  to  talk 
with  you  as  freely  as  he  will. 

Let  us  take  a  few  examples.  A  representative  of  a 
New  York  publishing  house  was  sent  to  induce  the 
president  of  a  great  university  to  write  a  book.  He 
immediately  read  the  last  book  written  by  the  educa- 
tor. His  opening  remark  then,  when  he  called,  was : 
"It  is  a  pleasure  to  meet  you.  I  have  just  completed 
the  reading  of  your  latest  book."  That  put  the  inter- 
view upon  a  favorable  footing  immediately. 

A  salesman  calling  upon  an  advertising  manager 
whose  firm's  initial  page  in  the  Saturday  Evening 
Post  had  appeared  two  weeks  previously,  immediately 
proceeded  to  congratulate  the  advertising  manager 


32  SALESMANSHIP 

upon  having  broken  into  the  Post,  and  commented 
upon  the  forcefukiess  of  the  copy  used. 

An  insurance  man  had  learned  two  things  about  one 
of  his  prospects;  he  was  hostile  to  insurance,  and  he 
had  a  son  and  a  daughter  at  college.  By  talking 
specifically  of  the  financial  future  of  that  particular 
son  and  daughter,  instead  of  generally  of  the  necessity 
of  providing  for  one's  family,  he  was  able  to  remove 
the  hostility. 

A  high-class  salesman  who  does  business  with  rail- 
road presidents  makes  it  a  point  to  be  thoroly  familiar 
with  the  railroad's  latest  annual  report  and  especially 
with  the  features  that  show  marked  gains. 

A  man  who  places  exclusive  agencies  for  a  hard- 
ware specialty  makes  a  practice  of  buying  a  key-ring 
in  each  of  the  three  or  four  hardware  stores  in  a  town. 
While  he  is  being  waited  upon,  he  has  an  opportunity 
of  looking  around  and  getting  a  pretty  definite  im- 
pression. He  then  goes  to  the  store  that  impressed 
him  as  being  the  best  and  offers  the  agency. 

5.  Gathering  information. — The  human  mind  is  so 
constituted  that  it  hesitates  to  center  itself  upon  a 
new  subject  unless  that  subject  is  manifestly  one  of 
personal  interest.  Previous  knowledge  of  a  prospect 
enables  the  salesman  to  inject  this  element  of  personal 
interest.  His  information  is  garnered  from  many 
sources.  Other  salesmen  can  give  him  a  great  deal. 
In  small  towns,  the  hotel  clerks  are  able  to  tell  him 
much.  ]Men  to  whom  he  has  sold  can  inform  him 
about  the  men  he  is  going  to  see.     This  gathering  of 


PRELIMINARY  TO  THE  INTERVIEW  33 

information  from  their  customers  is  a  favorite  method 
with  specialty  men,  some  of  whom  make  it  a  rule  to 
question  every  man  they  call  upon  concerning  some 
other  man  or  business  in  town.  The  man  who  buys 
staples  generally  knows  the  men  who  carry  the  same 
line  in  adjoining  towns  and,  as  they  are  not  com- 
petitors, will  give  unbiased  information  concerning 
them.  Newspapers  frequently  contain  valuable  ref- 
erences to  the  business  men  of  a  community.  The 
telephone  directories  and  general  directories  are  un- 
failing sources  of  information.  The  salesmen  should 
consider  this  gathering  of  information  as  an  important 
part  of  his  work.  He  should  be  continually  on  the 
lookout  for  anything  that  will  enable  him  to  get  a 
favorable  opening,  that  will  be  a  buffer  against  the 
shock  of  the  contact  of  two  minds,  or  that  will  establish 
a  point  of  contact  with  his  prospect. 

6.  Using  a  card-indeoc. — What  has  been  said 
applies  primarily  to  the  first  interview.  Unless  the 
salesman  sees  his  customers  regularly  and  at  short 
intervals,  however,  they  will  seem  like  new  prospects 
every  time  he  calls  upon  them.  A  salesman  who  calls 
upon  his  customer  only  once  in  three  or  four  months 
and  depends  ujDon  his  memory  for  the  essential  facts 
concerning  him  and  his  business,  is  likely  to  forget 
important  details.  For  that  reason,  a  salesman  often 
keeps  a  simple  card-record  of  each  customer.  Upon 
each  card  he  keeps  a  note  of  the  man's  financial  stand- 
ing, the  business  that  has  been  done  with  him  and  items 
of  personal  information  gained  during  the  various 


34  SALESMANSHIP 

interviews.  He  goes  over  these  cards  before  each 
call. 

7.  Securing  an  interview. — A  salesman  who  had 
sent  his  name  in  to  a  large  buyer  received  the  reply 
that  the  buyer  did  not  wish  to  see  him.  "Tell  your 
boss,"  he  quickly  instructed  the  ofRce  boy,  "that  I  al- 
ready knew  he  didn't  want  to  see  me ;  it  is  I  who  wish 
to  see  him";  and  the  story  goes  that  he  saw  him.  If 
he  did,  he  accomplished  an  important  thing;  for  it  is 
not  until  he  has  been  able  to  get  face  to  face  with  his 
prospect,  that  the  salesman's  appearance,  personality, 
knowledge  of  his  goods,  or  the  best  talking  point  he 
may  have  at  his  tongue's  end,  can  do  any  good. 

There  is  little  trouble,  of  course,  in  getting  access  to 
the  proprietor  of  the  small  retail  store.  It  is  seldom 
that  any  difficulty  is  experienced  in  getting  an  inter- 
view with  any  man  in  the  average  manufacturing  con- 
cerns in  the  smaller  cities.  A  great  many  of  the 
largest  concerns  and  of  the  largest  men,  too,  make  it  a 
point  to  see  that  every  salesman  is  received  courteously 
and  given  an  audience. 

In  a  great  many  cases  where  the  formality  of  giving 
your  name  to  an  office  boy  or  telephone  operator  must 
be  gone  thru  with,  the  invariable  answer  of  the  business 
man  to  the  operator's  "Mr.  Blank  to  see  you"  is  "Tell 
him  to  come  right  in."  The  average  man's  natural 
curiosity,  coupled  with  his  aversion  to  walking  outside 
to  see  you,  w»ill  prompt  that  reply.  Let  us  realize, 
then,  that  the  salesman  sometimes  conjures  in  his 
mind's  eye  difficulties  of  getting  in  which  do  not  exist. 


PRELIMINARY  TO  THE  INTERVIEW  35 

8.  Men  hard  to  see. — ^Many  business  men,  how- 
ever, whose  various  interviews  during  the  day  make 
great  inroads  on  their  time,  and  who  must  provide  for 
other  matters,  feel  obhged  to  hedge  themselves  about 
with  guards  of  one  kind  or  another — to  erect  barriers 
against  those  who  would  intrude.  This  should  not  be 
taken  to  indicate  that  they  have  no  desire  to  look  into 
a  worth-while  projjosition.  They  expect  a  salesman 
with  a  proposition  worthy  of  their  attention  to  be  big 
enough  and  ingenious  enough  to  make  his  way  past 
thfese  obstacles.  If  the  salesman  asking  for  an  inter- 
view is  not  firmly  convinced  that  his  proposition  is  in 
that  class  he  has  no  right  to  be  there. 

Now,  there  are  a  few  men — a  very  few — Avho  are 
very  hard  to  see.  A  salesman  must  then  apply  him- 
self to  finding  a  way  of  getting  in  instead  of  sitting 
back  and  proving  to  himself  that  it  is  impossible. 
Should  he  finally  decide  that  he  cannot  gain  an  inter- 
view, he  may  be  obliged  to  see  some  other  fellow  in 
the  same  line  come  along,  get  in  and  make  the  sale. 
It  should  be  remembered,  always,  that  there  are  some 
men  who  are  getting  in,  tliat  there  are  some  men  from 
whom  the  prospect  is  buying.     Be  one  of  them. 

9.  Tactics  to  he  avoided. — It  is  important  that 
the  salesman  not  only  secure  his  audience,  but  also  that 
he  secure  it  on  a  right  basis.  A  busy  man  could  be 
dragged  out  of  an  important  directors'  meeting  by  a 
sufficiently  urgent  message;  but  if,  having  come  out, 
he  discovers  that  his  caller's  business  is  not  of  the  im- 
mediate importance  to  him  that  the  message  indicated. 


36  SALESMANSHIP 

he  will  resent  the  occurrence  so  much  that  to  do  busi- 
ness with  him  will  be  an  impossibility. 

The  hackneyed  and  overworked  "personal  matter" 
method  should  be  avoided.  No  matter  is  personal 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  prospective  purchaser. 
The  simple,  dignified  formula:  "Tell  Mr.  Jones  that 
Mr.  Brown  is  here  to  see  him"  is  probably  the  best,  as 
a  usual  thing.  Then  if  the  nature  of  the  business,  is 
asked  for,  several  avenues  are  open.  A  very  success- 
ful salesman  uses  the  method  of  asking  the  telephone 
operator  or  reception  clerk  to  connect  him  with  the 
man  he  wishes  to  see.  He  is  thus  enabled  to  get  in  a 
short,  pithy  talk  ending  with  "Now  I  just  want  to 
step  in  there  for  a  few  minutes.     jMay  I?" 

A  young  fellow  soliciting  advertising  for  a  lumber 
journal  used  to  work  out  original  ways  of  stating  his 
business  by  writing  a  message  on  his  card.  In  re- 
sponse to  the  request  of  a  large  hardware  store's  ad- 
vertising manager  to  know  his  business,  he  wrote:  "Do 
you  know  how  much  craj'^on  the  southern  lumber  mills 
use  every  month  to  mark  lumber?"  He  was  pre- 
pared, of  course,  to  show  the  advertising  manager 
that  the  concern's  sales  of  crayon  alone  would  war- 
rant the  advertising.  A  man  may  be  original  in  stat- 
ing his  business,  or  he  may  avoid  having  to  state  it; 
but  directly  to  mislead  his  prospect  concerning  it  or 
to  exaggerate  its  importance  will  not  start  him  on  the 
road  toward  a  sale. 

Courteous  persistence  gains  many  an  interview,  and 
on  a  favorable  basis,  for  the  average  prospect  feels 


PRELIMINARY  TO  THE  INTERVIEW  37 

rather  ashamed  of  continually  turning  a  man  do^vn 
without  a  hearing.  The  salesman  will  find  that  it  is 
very  often  possible  to  reach  a  man  over  the  telephone 
when  he  cannot  be  reached  in  person  in  his  office. 

It  has  been  found  that  the  right  kind  of  letter,  or 
possibly  series  of  letters,  paving  the  way  for  the  sales- 
man's call  and  telling  the  prospect  that  the  salesman 
may  be  expected,  possibly  on  a  definite  day,  is  ef- 
fective in  putting  the  salesman  on  a  little  better  basis 
than  if  he  simply  makes  a  cold  call;  this  method  se- 
cures interviews  which  might  otherwise  be  difficult  to 
secure. 

10.  Advantages  of  using  the  telephone. — The  abil- 
ity to  use  the  telephone  effectively  becomes  increas- 
ingly important  to  the  salesman  with  each  pass- 
ing day.  In  all  business  transactions  requiring  one 
business  man  to  call  upon  another,  it  is  becoming  more 
and  more  common  practice  for  a  man  to  phone  be- 
forehand, in  order  that  he  may  by  this  method  both 
avoid  wasting  his  own  time  and  save  the  time  of  the 
other  man.  l^he  effective  use  of  the  telephone  by  the 
salesman,  especially  in  work  in  a  big  city,  will  save 
him  a  great  deal  of  unproductive  "leg"  work  and  will 
enable  him  to  use  productively  a  larger  percentage  of 
his  prospect-seeing  time.  Such  a  method  of  work  will 
help  him  to  arrange  all  of  his  day  in  such  a  way  that 
he  may  be  reasonably  sure  that  he  can  use  the  greater 
part  of  it  in  actually  seeing  prospects.  Thus  he  can 
eliminate  to  a  great  degree  calling  upon  men  who  are 
out  of  their  offices  or  who  are  so  busily  engaged  as  to 


38  SALESMANSHIP 

be  unable  to  see  him.  Furthermore,  a  previous  ap- 
pointment over  the  phone  will  enable  the  salesman  to 
introduce  himself  in  the  outer  office  by  saying:  "Will 
you  please  tell  Mr.  Prospect  that  Mr.  Salesman  is 
here  to  see  him?  I  have  an  appointment  with  Mr. 
Prospect  at  this  time  today." 

The  use  of  the  telephone  by  the  salesman  in  secur- 
ing appointments  and  assuring  himself  of  audiences 
with  his  prospects  is,  however,  rather  a  neglected  art. 
This  method  has  not  been  given  the  same  careful  study 
and  planning  as  has  been  accorded  other  methods  of 
getting  in  to  see  prospects.  Consequently,  the  tele- 
phone has  too  often  been  used  only  as  a  last  resort; 
seldom  when  it  was  at  all  possible  to  reach  the  prospect 
without  making  an  appointment.  This  feeling  has 
been  so  strong  that  in  the  past  some  houses  have  issued 
instructions  to  their  salesmen  never  to  attempt  to 
transact  any  business  over  the  phone  because  of  the 
disadvantage  at  which  this  method  placed  them.  The 
salesman  should  give  the  use  of  the  telephone  the  same 
careful  study  that  he  gives  to  the  presentation  of  his 
proposition;  and  if  he  does  this  he  will  find  he  has  de- 
veloped one  more  method  of  increasing  his  efficiency. 

11.  How  to  use  the  telephone  eifectively. — The 
salesman's  talk  over  the  phone  must  be  carefully 
planned  so  as  to  dominate  the  entire  conversation,  to 
be  strong  in  positive  suggestion,  to  stick  strictly  to  the 
subject  that  he  is  striving  to  emphasize  and  to  leave 
little  or  nothing  to  the  prospect's  deliberation.  To 
show  just  exactly  what  we  mean,  we  shall  give  a  more 


PRELIMINARY  TO  THE  INTERVIEW  39 

or  less  typical  phone  conversation  between  salesman 
and  prospect,  supposing  that  the  salesman  is  arrang- 
ing for  an  appointment. 

"Mr.  Prospect,  this  is  Mr.  Salesman  of  Blank  and 
Blank  calling.  I  have  a  business  proposition  I  wish 
to  talk  over  with  you.  AVhat  is  the  most  convenient 
time  of  day  to  see  you?  If  I  call  between  ten  and 
eleven  this  morning,  will  you  be  in  your  office?" 

It  will  be  noticed  that  this  question  calls  for  the 
simple  answer  yes  or  no.  If  the  answer  is  yes,  the 
salesman  should  come  back  with:  "All  right,  I  will  see 
you  at  that  time,"  terminate  the  interview  as  quickly 
as  he  can  with  courtesy,  and  hang  up  the  receiver. 

If  the  answer  is  no,  he  should  suggest  a  different 
time  for  the  interview,  in  some  such  way  as  this: 
"Well,  would  some  time  between  two  and  three  this 
afternoon  be  better  for  you?" 

The  salesman  should  always  suggest  the  time  of  the 
appointment,  in  order  to  leave  as  little  as  possible  to 
the  prosj^ect's  decision.  He  will  thus  prevent  the  de- 
lay that  would  result  from  the  prospect's  deliberation 
as  to  the  time  that  would  be  convenient  to  him.  In 
other  words,  the  question  suggesting  a  definite  time  is 
strong  in  positive  suggestion. 

There  is  another  way,  of  course,  in  which  the  pros- 
pect may  reply:  "Well,  Mr.  Salesman,  what  is  it  that 
you  wish  to  see  me  about?"  This  question  should  be 
given  some  such  answer  as,  "Well,  we  will  let  that  go 
until  I  see  you,  INIr.  Prospect,"  or,  "I'll  tell  you  about 
that  when  I  call."     This  is  best  said  half  laughingly 


40  SALESMANSHIP 

and  should  be  closely  followed  up  with,  "Let  me  drop 
in  and  have  a  little  talk  with  you  some  time  today, 
Mr.  Prospect — shall  we  say,  about  2.30  this  after- 
noonf 

The  princijile  here  is  that  the  phone  conversation 
must  be  held  strictly  to  the  purpose  that  the  salesman 
desires  it  to  accomplish.  He  should  bear  in  mind  that 
he  is  striving  merely  for  an  appointment  and  should 
not  by  any  chance  allow  the  conversation  to  become 
a  presentation  of  his  proposition.  He  should  always 
be  prepared  with  some  such  remark  as,  "Seriously, 
Mr.  Prospect,  I  don't  think  it  would  be  possible  for 
us  to  discuss  my  proposition  satisfactorily  over  the 
phone,  and  I  do  want  to  sit  down  with  you  at  your 
desk  for  a  few  minutes.  Will  you  be  at  your  office 
this  afternoon?"  He  should  always  bring  the  conver- 
sation back  to  a  definite  suggestion  for  an  appoint- 
ment, for  he  will  thus  place  the  jDrospect  in  a  position 
where  he  must  eventually  either  agree  to  an  interview 
or  refuse  pointblank  to  see  the  salesman.  ■  In  neglect 
of  this  point  lies  the  weakness  of  most  salesmen's  ef- 
forts to  secure  appointments  over  the  phone;  and  it 
explains  why  many  houses  discourage  their  salesmen 
from  using  the  phone.  Unless  specific  conditions 
warrant  such  a  method,  the  salesman  who  endeavors  to 
present  his  proposition  to  a  prospect  over  the  phone  is 
at  a  serious  disadvantage.  It  is  much  easier  for  the 
prospect  to  turn  the  salesman  down  without  an  ade- 
quate hearing  under  such  circimistances  than  it  would 
be  if  the  two  were  face  to  face. 


PRELIMINARY  TO  THE  INTERVIEW  41 

Furthermore,  the  presentation  of  the  salesman  is 
usually  designed  to  appeal  to  the  sight  as  well  as  to 
the  hearing  of  the  pospect — the  salesman's  oral  state- 
ments are  visualized  and  illustrated  by  samples  or 
equipment,  and  the  opportunity  to  use  this  part  of  the 
selling  appeal  is,  of  course,  lost  if  there  is  no  personal 
interview. 

12.  Disadvantage  of  too  definite  appointments. — 
There  is  one  disadvantage  connected  with  definite  ap- 
pointments, unless  they  come  the  first  thing  in  the 
morning,  or  possibly  the  first  thing  in  the  afternoon. 
Some  of  the  salesman's  time  that  could  be  used  to 
advantage  must  inevitably  be  wasted.  For  example, 
let  us  say  that  a  salesman  in  presenting  his  proposition 
usually  spends  anywhere  from  twenty  minutes  to  two 
hours  with  a  prospect.  Let  us  further  suppose  that 
he  has  completed  an  interview  with  one  prospect  at 
9.30  A.  M.  and  has  an  appointment  with  another  at  10 
o'clock.  He  will  hesitate  to  call  on  a  third  prospect 
between  9.30  and  10,  even  in  the  same  neighborhood, 
for  fear  of  having  to  run  away  in  the  middle  of  that 
interview  to  keep  his  10  o'clock  appointment.  Conse- 
quently, he  wastes  a  half  hour.  Two  or  three  situa- 
tions like  this  in  a  day  would  seriously  interfere  with 
steady,  efiPective  work.  Furthermore,  the  salesman 
cannot  arrange  his  definite  appointments  closely  to- 
gether without  uncertainty  as  to  his  ability  to  keep 
them  punctually.  It  is  suggested,  therefore,  that  ex- 
cept for  the  first  thing  in  the  morning  and  possibly  the 
first  thing  in  the  afternoon,  the  salesman  avoid  making 


42  SALESMANSHIP 

definite,  on-the-minute  appointments  whenever  pos- 
sible, and  rather  make  appointments  in  the  manner 
suggested  above — that  is,  "between  nine  and  ten," 
"between  two  and  three,"  or  "some  time  this  after- 
noon." Few  men  who  are  going  to  be  in  their  offices 
anyhow  will  insist  that  the  hour  be  more  specific. 

13.  Use  of  business  card. — As  a  usual  thing,  it  is 
unwise  to  send  a  card  in  by  an  offiee  boy,  or  to  hand  it 
to  the  operator  to  be  read  over  the  phone.  The  pros- 
pect veiy  likely  reads  the  card,  comes  to  an  adverse  de- 
cision and  determines  not  to  see  the  salesman.  The 
same  principle  applies  here  as  to  a  telephone  presenta- 
tion; it  is  much  easier  for  a  prospect  to  turn  down  a 
salesman  when  he  knows  the  latter's  business  without 
meeting  hmi  face  to  face.  For  the  same  reason,  if  the 
man  is  out  or  unable  to  see  the  salesman,  it  is  usually 
not  a  good  plan  for  the  latter  to  leave  behind  any 
statement  of  his  business.  It  is  to  the  salesman's  ad- 
vantage to  have  a  clear  field  on  his  next  call.  The 
application  of  these  principles  depends  to  some  extent, 
of  course,  upon  the  individual  product  sold. 

14.  Dignified  healing  in  outer  office. — The  sales- 
man, in  giving  his  name  to  the  office  boy,  telephone 
operator,  or  the  guardian  at  the  outer  gates  of  a  large 
plant,  should  be  just  as  careful  of  his  methods  and  his 
conduct  as  if  he  were  in  the  presence  of  the  big  man  he 
is  endeavoring  to  see.  For  there  is  but  one  answer  to 
that  oft-repeated  question,  How  can  I  get  by  these 
people?  and  that  is,  Caliber.  These  subordinates  each 
day  are  seeing  a  large  number  of  callers  who  wish  to 


PRELIMINARY  TO  THE  INTERVIEW  43 

meet  some  member  of  the  organization.  IMost  of  the 
visitors  are  ordinary  fellows  who  do  not  seem  to  de- 
mand much  deference  and  consequently  do  not  get  it. 
It  is  the  real  salesman's  duty  to  impress  these  em- 
ployes with  the  fact  that  he  is  someone  whose  dignity 
and  importance  entitle  him  to  an  audience.  If  he  suc- 
ceeds in  making  such  an  impression,  there  will  be 
a  difference  in  the  tone  in  which  they  will  probably  an- 
nounce him,  if  not  in  the  actual  words.  And  it  will 
make  a  gi-eat  deal  of  difference  whether  the  announce- 
ment is:  "There  is  a  man  here  to  see  you";  or,  "A 
gentleman,  Mr.  Blank,  is  here  to  see  you." 

15.  Office  etiquet. — Someone  has  suggested  that 
in  a  book  on  salesmanship  such  as  this  there  should  be 
a  chapter  on  office  etiquet  that  would  point  out  what 
a  salesman  should  and  should  not  do  upon  entering  an 
office  and  while  he  remains  there.  Such  a  chapter  is 
deemed  unnecessary,  because  the  same  rules,  dictated 
by  good  breeding,  which  obtain  in  all  our  relations 
with  our  fellow-men,  apply  here.  True  courtesy  is 
based  upon  a  sincere  consideration  for  others  and  a 
real  regard  for  the  comfort  of  those  with  whom  we 
come  in  contact.  There  is  innate  in  every  man  of  fine 
feeling  who  is  endeavoring  to  make  himself  a  true 
gentleman,  a  perception  of  the  courteous  thing  to  do 
in  every  situation,  and  the  true  salesman  will  follow 
this  instinct. 

If  one  were  to  meet  in  an  office  a  woman  whom  he 
knew  socially,  he  would  instinctively  remove  his  hat 
while  talking  to  her.     There  is  no  reason  why  a  sales- 


M  SALESMANSHIP 

man  talking  to  a  telephone  operator,  or  reception 
clerk,  in  the  outer  office  should  not  do  the  same.  One 
does  not  ordinarily  enter  the  house  of  a  social  ac- 
quaintance smoking  a  cigarette  or  a  cigar.  Neither, 
then,  should  a  salesman  enter  a  prospect's  reception 
room  or  private  office  smoking.  He  should  not,  of 
course,  begin  smoking  in  an  office  unless  he  is  invited 
LO  do  so.  Nor  is  it  courteous  to  ask  permission  to 
smoke,  except  when  circumstances  indicate  very 
clearly  that  the  prospect  will  not  have  the  slightest 
objection — and  even  then  there  is  little  reason  for 
the  request.  One  does  not  place  his  feet  on  the  rungs 
of  chairs  or  other  furniture  when  visiting  socially,  and 
a  salesman  should  be  extremely  careful  not  to  offend 
bj^  doing  so  in  an  office. 

The  reception  room  of  a  business  office  during  the 
business  day  is  neither  the  place  nor  the  time  for 
merry  banter  between  the  salesman  and  the  telephone 
operator;  but  this  does  not  imply  that  a  cour- 
teous and  helpful  friendship  may  not  spring  up  be- 
tween the  attendant  in  the  outer  office  and  the  sales- 
man who  visits  that  office  repeatedly.  It  cannot  be 
too  strongly  emphasized  that  no  discourteous  or  ill- 
bred  act  has  any  place  in  salesmanship.  The  trans- 
gression of  this  rule  is  the  reason  for  the  failure  of 
the  loud  talker,  and  of  the  salesman  who  thinks  he  is 
irresistibly  clever  or  humorous,  or  who  familiarly 
"sisters"  and  "brothers"  those  in  the  outer  office  on  too 
short  acquaintance.  His  actions  are  in  violation  of 
good  taste  and  are  resented  even  by  those  who  would 


PRELIMINARY  TO  THE  INTERVIEW  45 

be  likely  to  employ  the  same  tactics  if  they  were  in  his 
place. 

The  trouble  is  that  some  salesmen  confuse  dis- 
courtesy with  forcefulness.  The  salesman's  every  re- 
mark and  every  move  should  have  for  its  object  the 
advancement  of  his  cause,  but  he  should  not  make  the 
mistake  of  thinking  that  this  calls  for  any  behavior 
that  is  not  entirely  courteous.  It  is  possible  to  insist, 
yet  with  all  politeness,  that  one's  message  be  delivered 
to  the  prosjDect.  A  salesman  may  place  his  chair  and 
his  equipment  so  as  to  make  all  conditions  favorable  to 
a  presentation  of  his  proposition  without  in  the  least 
transgressing  the  rules  and  principles  of  courtesy. 

16.  Securing  favorable  conditions  for  interview. — • 
In  the  sale  of  most  commodities,  the  salesman  should 
realize  that  he  has  not  accomplished  his  task  of  getting 
at  the  buyer  if  the  latter  merely  comes  out  and  talks 
to  him  as  both  stand  in  the  reception  room.  A  man 
standing  up  feels  uncomfortable  and  is  scarcely  in  a 
position  to  give  his  best  attention.  Furthermore, 
under  such  circumstances  the  handling  of  any  equip- 
ment that  the  salesman  may  carry  is  likely  to  be 
awkward.  After  a  few  terse  remarks  calcidated  to 
arouse  the  prospects  interest,  the  direct  positive  sug- 
gestion should  be  made :  "Now,  let  us  step  in,  sit  down 
at  your  desk  and  go  over  this  briefly." 

It  is  to  the  salesman's  advantage  to  discover  whether 
or  not  there  is  any  best  time  to  see  his  prospect  and, 
if  there  is,  to  call  at  that  time.  Some  concerns  have 
regular  hours  for  seeing  salesmen  in  certain  lines.     It 

VI— 5 


46  SALESMANSHIP 

is  politic  to  call  during  those  hours,  unless  there  is 
some  good  reason  for  calling  at  another  time. 

17.  Cooperation  in  reaching  the  prospect. — There 
is  nothing  more  valuable  to  the  salesman  than  coopera- 
tion— cooperation  of  customers,  friends  and  even  of 
other  salesmen.  It  is  especially  valuable  in  the  matter 
of  getting  interviews.  It  makes  the  securing  of  an 
interview  under  favorable  auspices  a  simple  matter 
even  in  the  case  of  those  who  are  the  most  difficult  to 
see.  The  prospect  is  prepared  to  give  an  interested 
hearing  to  the  salesman's  whole  story  out  of  cour- 
tesy to  the  friend  who  sent  him.  Then,  too,  the  fact 
that  he  has  come  recommended,  has  created  confidence 
in  him. 

The  live  salesman,  particularly  in  specialty  lines,  is 
continually  on  the  lookout  for  helps  of  this  sort,  for 
they  represent  to  him  the  lines  of  least  resistance.  As 
he  goes  from  town  to  town  he  picks  up  here  and  there 
a  card  of  introduction  from  some  brother  salesman 
to  one  of  that  salesman's  particularly  intimate  cus- 
tomers. He  secures  letters  of  introduction  and  of 
commendation  of  his  proposition  as  he  goes  from  one 
town  to  another  and  from  one  man  to  another.  He 
secures  from  every  man  to  whom  he  sells,  the  names 
of  some  friends  who  are  likely  to  be  interested  pros- 
pects. The  best  possible  source  of  prospects  for  an 
automobile  salesman  is  the  man  who  has  bought  a  car, 
is  enthusiastic  about  it,  has  been  boosting  it  to  the 
people  he  knows,  and  is  sufficiently  friendly  with  the 
salesman  to  tell  him  who  among  his  friends  are  con- 


PRELIMINARY  TO  THE  INTERVIEW  47 

sidering  purchasing  cars  or  who  could  afford  to  do  so. 
The  salesman  then  secures  definite  permission  to  use 
this  customer's  name  with  these  new  prospects.  An 
introduction  like  the  following  gives  him  a  strong  en- 
tering wedge:  "I  interested  your  friend,  oNIr.  Brown, 
in  my  proposition  yesterday  and  he  suggested  that  I 
should  see  you  before  I  left  town."  He  approaches 
from  another  angle  by  getting  the  man  he  has  just 
sold  to  telephone  any  friends  who  are  possible  pros- 
pects and  tell  them  that  he  is  coming.  He  is  careful, 
in  using  this  latter  method,  to  make  sure  that  his  cus- 
tomer who  is  thus  cooperating  does  not  endeavor  to 
give  the  friend  a  selling  talk  over  the  phone,  but  that 
he  merely  announces  that  the  salesman  is  going  to 
drop  in.  Cooperation  of  this  kind  enables  the  sales- 
man to  occupy  his  time  in  seeing  prospects  and  not 
in  seeking  them. 

18.  Individuality  in  announcing  oneself. — The 
large  department  stores  of  New  York  and  Chicago 
have  very  rigid  rules  as  to  how  salesmen  who  call  at 
their  stores  shall  announce  themselves  and  at  what 
time  they  shall  be  seen.  As  practically  every  house  in 
every  line  has  one  of  its  men  call  on  these  stores,  the 
number  of  salesmen  calling  during  the  day  is  enor- 
mous. A  rather  arbitrary  selection  is  made  of  those 
who  shall  be  seen ;  comparatively  few  reach  the  buyers 
of  their  lines.  The  question  of  how  to  proceed  to 
secure  an  audience  under  these  circumstances  was  fre- 
quently brought  up  in  the  author's  lecture  courses  by 
salesmen  who  were  meeting  these  conditions  every 


48  SALESMANSHIP 

day.  In  consequence,  the  merchandising  man  of  one 
of  the  largest  New  York  department  stores  was  inter- 
viewed in  collecting  the  material  for  this  Text. 

In  the  department  store  referred  to,  the  salesman  is 
obliged  to  give  his  name  and  his  line,  and  this  informa- 
tion a  girl  writes  on  a  regular  form.  There  seems  to 
be  little  chance  for  individuality  under  such  a  system. 
When  questioned  as  to  that,  however,  the  merchandis- 
ing man  said:  "Oh,  yes,  a  few  of  the  salesmen  who 
come  in  show  considerable  ingenuity.  For  example, 
I  received  a  slip  one  day  which  the  salesman  had  evi- 
dently taken  away  from  the  girl  and  upon  which  he 
had  written  'the  first  daj^  it  was  on  the  floor,  INIarshall 
Field  sold  twenty-five  of  the  models  I  want  to  show 
you  now.'  You  may  be  sure  he  got  in,"  he  concluded. 
It  is  quite  natural  that  the  busiest  buyer  imaginable 
would  have  time  for  a  proposition  like  that. 

The  same  merchandising  man  brought  out  another 
point.  A  friend  of  his  was  selling  cloaks  and  suits, 
and  had  the  usual  trouble  reaching  buyers  of  the  large^ 
department  stores.  So  the  merchant  advised  his 
friend  as  follows:  "Your  house  sells  mourning  cloak 
and  suit  specialties.  The  cloak  and  suit  salesmen  who 
call  on  us  are  legion.  There  are  very  few  calling  on 
us  with  a  line  of  mourning  goods.  Instead  of  the 
'cloaks  and  suits'  on  your  card  now,  place  'mourning 
specialties.'  So  few  men  sell  cloaks  and  suits  for 
mourning  that  you  are  almost  sure  to  see  the  buyer. 
After  you  have  secured  an  audience  on  your  specialty, 
there  is  nothing  to  prevent  your  talking  cloaks  and 


PRELIMINARY  TO  THE  INTERVIEW  49 

suits  also."  It  would  seem,  then,  that  the  obstacles 
to  seeing  a  large  department  store  buyer  are  not  insur- 
mountable to  the  salesman  of  some  ingenuity  and 
originality. 

19.  Proper  approach. — Let  us  suppose,  now,  that 
the  salesman  is  in.  He  is  crossing  the  space  between 
the  office  door  and  the  prospect's  desk.  The  prospect, 
at  this  point,  is  sizing  up  the  salesman,  just  as  the 
salesman  is  sizing  up  the  prospect.  This  is  the  time 
of  first  impressions.  The  salesman  decides  in  those 
few  seconds  whether  he  has  made  a  good  first  impres- 
sion which  he  can  take  advantage  of,  or  whether  he 
has  made  a  bad  impression,  which  he  will  have  to  over- 
come. He  is  deciding  whether  the  prospect  will  de- 
vote the  first  few  moments  of  the  interview  to  an  en- 
deavor to  shunt  him  off  or  to  make  him  feel  at  home. 
To  a  certain  extent,  he  is  deciding  whether  he  will 
dominate  or  be  dominated.  There  must  be  no  atti- 
tude of  servility,  no  idea  that  he  is  trespassing  upon 
the  prospect's  time.  There  must  be  a  sincere  feeling 
of  equality  and  dignity  and  a  realization  of  the  impor- 
tance of  his  mission.  The  confident  man  with  a  mis- 
sion is  known  the  minute  he  steps  into  a  room. 

REVIEW 

Define  sale,  both  legally  and  from  a  standpoint  of  modern 
business. 

Name  and  discuss  the  developments  in  a  sale. 

Can  you  point  out  the  particular  parts  of  the  salesman's  work 
which  bring  about  these  developments  ? 

Discuss  in  a  general  way  the  problem  of  securing  interviews. 


CHAPTER  IV 

SELLING  PROCESS— THE  INTERVIEW 

1.  Object  of  studying  developments  in  a  sale. — 
The  selling  process  may  be  approached  from  two  sep- 
arate and  distinct  points.  First,  by  examining  the 
various  psychological  processes  involved  we  can  de- 
termine why  a  sale  is  made.  And  second,  by  examin- 
ing the  statements  and  actions  of  the  salesman  we  can 
determine  how  a  sale  is  made.  It  is  this  latter  point, 
how  a  sale  is  made,  which  we  are  principally  concerned 
with  in  this  book.  Our  main  object,  therefore,  in  ex- 
amining in  detail  the  developments  that  take  place  in 
a  sale,  is  to  be  able  to  give  the  salesman  a  thoro  under- 
standing of  these  developments,  in  order  that  he  may 
plan  for  any  particular  commodity  or  service,  a  pres- 
entation and  demonstration  that  will  produce  these 
developments  in  their  natural  order  and  carry  the  sale 
to  a  successful  conclusion.  And  it  is  with  this  end  in 
view  that  the  developments  in  the  selling  process 
should  be  studied. 

2.  Attention;  its  nature. — Psychologists  tell  us  that 
the  mind  is  under  a  continual  bombardment  of  ideas, 
all  of  which  are  trying  to  make  an  impression  upon 
it.  The  activities  of  a  man's  business  that  are  going 
on  about  him,  the  people  around  him,  the  ideas  that 

50 


THE  INTERVIEW  51 

he  has  in  mind  to  work  out,  the  train  of  thought 
started  by  some  object  on  which  his  vision  rests — to 
say  nothing  of  such  commonplace  things  as  his  morn- 
ing mail,  his  telephone  and  the  papers  on  his  desk — all 
claim  his  attention.  And  what  is  more,  there  is  in- 
sistent demand  that  he  attend  immediately  to  one  or 
several  of  these  things.  The  prospect,  therefore,  does 
not  sit  around  with  his  mind  a  blank,  calmly  waiting 
for  someone  or  something  to  capture  his  attention 
without  a  struggle.  The  salesman  enters  a  field 
already  well  occupied  and  must  fight  for  the  undivided 
attention  that  is  essential  to  a  successful  sale.  He 
must,  by  his  personality,  his  proposition  and  by  his 
opening  remarks,  eliminate  all  competitors  for  that 
attention  and  hold  the  field  alone. 

3.  Conditions  favorable  to  attention. — Since  the 
prospect's  attention  is  so  elusive,  the  salesman  should 
not  seek  it  at  a  time  when  other  strong  claims  are 
pressing  upon  it.  If  the  prospect  is  really  too  busy  to 
give  his  attention,  it  is  to  the  salesman's  advantage  to 
postpone  his  interview,  make  a  definite  appointment 
and  call  again.  If  the  prospect  is  waiting  to  attend 
to  some  important  business,  the  salesman  should  avoid 
being  granted  merely  a  short  five  or  ten  minutes  of  his 
time,  for  the  prospect  will  find  it  impossible  to  give 
him  any  serious  attention.  It  goes  without  saying,  of 
course,  that  the  salesman  should  be  convinced  of  the 
sincerity  of  the  prospect  and  should  not  allow  himself 
to  be  put  off  with  mere  excuses. 

The  astute  salesman  will  never  break  in  upon  a  re- 


52  SALESMANSHIP 

tailer  when  he  is  engaged  with  a  customer,  nor  will  he 
stand  waiting  for  any  length  of  time  where  the  retailer 
may  be  disturbed  by  his  presence.  The  retailer  is 
naturally  more  interested  in  his  customer  than  in  the 
salesman,  for  to  the  man  in  business,  selling  is  always 
more  interesting  than  buying. 

A  salesman  should  never  attempt  to  talk  to  a  man 
who  is  not  listening — who  is  writing  a  letter  or  occu- 
pying himself  in  any  other  way.  He  should  not 
attempt  to  compel  attention  by  loud,  fast  or  feverish 
talking.  One  of  the  best  specialty  salesmen  in  the 
country,  whenever  he  met  a  situation  of  this  kind,  was 
wont  to  sit  back  and  ask  in  a  very  dignified  way,  "Does 
this  interest  you,  Mr.  Prospect?"  The  answer  almost 
invariably  was  an  apologetic  yes.  The  salesman's 
idea  was  that  in  order  to  be  successful  he  would  have 
to  dominate  the  interview  at  every  point.  He  pre- 
ferred to  lose  the  sale  in  a  clean  battle  for  the  domina- 
tion of  the  interview,  rather  than  to  allow  the  prospect 
to  dominate  him  and  give  him  but  a  scant  measure  of 
attention. 

The  ideal  conditions  under  which  to  secure  a  pros- 
pect's undivided  attention  are  to  be  alone  with  the 
prospect,  to  have  him  comfortable  and  to  have  abso- 
lute quiet. 

4.  The  card  and  the  handshake. — It  might  be  well 
to  digress  here  for  a  moment  to  discuss  two  small  but 
important  items.  Altho  the  practice  is  quite  common, 
it  is  not  well  to  hand  a  man  a  business  card  when 
endeavoring  to  get  his  attention.     The  prospect  can- 


THE  INTERVIEW  63 

not  look  at  the  salesman  and  at  his  card  at  the  same 
time.  The  salesman  should  tell  the  prospect  who  he  is 
and  what  his  business  is,  and  thus  take  the  opportu- 
nity to  impress  the  prospect  with  his  personality  and 
to  secure  undivided  attention. 

Then,  there  is  the  much  discussed  question  of 
whether  the  salesman  should  offer  to  shake  hands  with 
the  prospect  when  introducing  himself.  Some  sales- 
men always  do  this ;  others,  never.  There  is  a  middle 
course.  Good  judgment  should  dictate  to  the  sales- 
man, in  each  individual  case,  whether  or  not  he  should 
offer  to  shake  hands.  The  custom  in  the  particular 
territor}^  will  largely  govern.  Handshaking  is  not 
the  usual  thing  in  New  York  or  Chicago.  In  the 
South  and  West,  however,  the  salesman  would  run 
the  danger  of  appearing  cold  bj^  not  offering  to  shake 
hands.  Then,  too,  buyers,  purchasing  agents  and 
others  who  see  a  great  many  salesmen  sometimes  have 
an  aversion  to  shaking  miscellaneous  assortments  of 
hands  during  the  day.  Whenever  the  salesman  does 
shake  hands  he  should  see  to  it  that  his  act  is  hearty, 
red-blooded  and  sincere. 

5.  The  psychology  of  the  small  favor. — Some 
salesmen  believe  that  getting  the  prospect  to  do  them 
one  or  two  small  favors  early  in  the  interview  will 
tend  to  put  the  interview  on  a  right  footing.  Their 
idea  is  that  one  man  always  enjoys  helping  another 
and  feels  friendly  toward  the  man  for  whom  he  has 
done  a  service  and  who  has  expressed  his  appreciation. 
For  this  reason  they  make  it  a  point,  soon  after  they 


54.  SALESMANSHIP 

have  introduced  themselves,  to  borrow  a  pencil  or  a 
pen  from  the  prospect;  request  permission  to  lower  a 
shade  so  as  to  remove  a  glare  from  their  eyes ;  or,  better 
still,  let  their  actions  subtly  indicate  that  the  glare 
is  annoying  and  so  get  the  prospect  to  suggest  the 
lowering.  The  salesman  may  look  about  him  with 
just  the  least  suggestion  of  helplessness  for  a  spot  for 
his  equipment  until  the  prospect  hastens  to  arrange  a 
place;  or  possibly  make  the  simple  request  that  he  be 
allowed  to  remove  his  overcoat. 

W.  F.  Lockwood,  sales  manager  of  the  Toledo 
Scale  Company,  in  an  article  in  Printers'  Ink,  gives 
a  view  of  this  subject  from  a  different  angle: 

There  is  an  interesting  analogy  between  some  of  the  well- 
known  laws  of  physics  and  some  of  the  not  so  well-known 
mental  habits  and  conditions,  that  bears  interestingly  upon 
the  work  of  the  salesman. 

Most  of  us  know  that  familiar  law  in  physics  which  says 
that  bodies  at  rest  have  a  tendency  to  remain  at  rest,  while 
those  in  motion  have  a  tendency  to  continue  in  motion.  A 
body  in  motion  tends  always  to  continue  its  motion  in  the 
same  direction.  One  of  the  interesting  new  things  that  we 
have  discovered  about  the  mind  is  that  it  follows  the  same  law. 
The  mind,  if  set  in  a  certain  direction  and  given  a  certain  kind 
of  a  start,  tends  very  strongly  to  continue  in  that  same  direc- 
tion, unless  something  heads  it  off  and  sets  it  in  another  direc- 
tion. Once  start  the  mind  along  certain  lines  and  it  is  far 
more  difficult  to  stop  it  and  turn  it  back  in  another  direction 
than  it  originally  was  to  start  it. 

And  there  is  another  respect  in  which  the  mind  follows 
one  of  the  laws  relating  to  matter.  It  is  difficult  to  start  it 
off  at  full  speed.  Take  a  trolley-car  for  example.  Now  a 
trolley-car  can  never  be  started  off  at  full  speed.  If  some 
superhuman  power  tried  to  do  so,  it  would  result  in  all  the 


THE  INTERVIEW  55 

passengers  being  jammed,  probably  breaking  a  few  arms, 
legs  and  many  windows.  Every  trolley-car,  every  train  of 
cars,  every  train  of  thought  must  be  started  slowly.  So, 
if  you  tried  to  start  your  prospect  off  at  full  speed  in  the 
direction  that  you  desire  him  to  go,  or  in  other  words,  if  you 
tried  to  stampede  him  into  giving  an  order,  you  would  prob- 
ably wreck  your  chances  every  time. 

Now  then,  since  it  is  unwise  to  try  to  start  your  pros- 
pect at  full  speed,  what  are  you  going  to  do.''  Why,  the 
obvious  thing  is  to  start  him  very  slowly  doing  the  things 
that  you  ask  him  to  do.  Start  him  very  slowly  doing  trifling 
things  to  which  he  will  not  attach  the  slightest  importance, 
but  which  3'ou  know  are  getting  him  into  the  right  atti- 
tude to  do,  later  on,  the  big  thing  you  are  going  to  ask. 
Make  all  requests  that  possibly  can  be  made,  such  as  asking 
for  a  pencil  or  a  bit  of  paper,  or  if  you  may  sit  down,  or  if 
you  may  lay  your  hat  in  a  certain  place — it  doesn't  make 
any  difference  what  the  request  is ;  if  it  is  something  he  will 
grant  readily,  you  have  gained  a  point.  You  have  his  mind 
moving  in  the  right  direction.  You  have  started  him  into 
doing  your  will  in  a  trifle.  That  has  been  easy,  because  he 
places  no  importance  upon  the  trifle.  But  it  will,  in  conse- 
quence of  this,  be  much  easier  for  you  to  get  him  to  do  your 
will  in  a  larger  matter  a  little  bit  later  on. 

But  just  as  the  experienced  engineer  continues  to  acceler- 
ate the  motion  of  his  train  so  that  the  passengers  are  hardly 
aware  of  it,  you  must  accelerate  the  motion  of  your  pros- 
pect's mind  so  that  he  will  not  be  aware  of  what  you  are 
doing  to  him.  It  is  a  complicated  matter,  of  course,  for  you 
to  carry  on  a  sort  of  double  campaign  in  this  manner.  For 
remember  that  all  this  time  you  have  got  to  be  talking  intelli- 
gently about  3'our  proposition  to  keep  3'our  prospect  inter- 
ested. Yet  while  you  are  doing  this  you  must  also  be  wide 
awake  for  opportunities  of  making  trifling  requests  of  your 
prospect  which  he  will  not  hesitate  to  grant.  But  don't 
forget  that  each  time  you  do  this  you  are  very  gradually 
increasing  the  chance  of  your  prospect's  giving  you  an  order 
when  the  time  comes  for  you  to  ask  for  it. 


56  SALESMANSHIP 

6.  Transferring  attention  to  goods. — The  first  at- 
tention that  a  salesman  secures  will  be  directed  to  him- 
self. It  is  a  peculiar  psychological  fact  that  any  im- 
pression, favorable  or  unfavorable,  that  the  salesman 
makes  upon  the  prospect  in  his  approach  will  be  trans- 
ferred to  the  goods,  when  attention  is  diverted  to 
them.  Without  thinking  much  about  it  the  prospect 
assumes  that  a  reliable  house  will  not  be  represented 
by  a  poorly  dressed  or  careless  salesman.  The  article 
of  good  quality  would  seem  to  call  for  a  man  of 
quality  to  recommend  it.  The  converse  is  also  true; 
the  large  calibered  salesman  will  suggest  a  reliable 
liouse;  the  man  of  quality  will  suggest  an  article  of 
quality. 

The  salesman  must  divert  the  prospect's  attention 
from  himself  to  his  goods  if  the  sale  is  to  progress. 
Any  exaggeration  of  dress  or  manner,  a  loud  voice 
or  violent  gestures  will  make  this  difficult.  A  gentle- 
manly, low-voiced  salesman  with  an  easy  manner  can 
divert  his  prospect's  attention  to  the  goods  by  placing 
them  before  him  or  making  some  strong,  positive  state- 
ment regarding  them. 

Any  unnaturalness  of  speech  or  manner  is  likely 
to  delay  this  diversion  of  the  prospect's  attention. 
The  salesman  who  uses  a  standard  presentation  and 
has  not  made  it  his  own  so  that  he  can  deliver  it 
naturally,  will  find  it  difficult  to  direct  his  prospect's 
attention  to  the  article  sold.  A  gi'eat  many  of  the 
so-called  clever  openings  have  this  defect. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  man  who  talks  easily 


THE  INTERVIEW  57 

and  well  is  likely  to  meet  the  same  difficulty.  It  is 
not  uncommon  for  a  prospect  to  become  wary  of  the 
smooth  talker  who  calls  upon  him  for  the  evident  pur- 
pose of  getting  an  order.  A  mild,  gray-haired  man 
who  was  after  a  large  machinery  order  said,  very 
early  in  his  interview  with  the  company's  president: 
"I'm  not  much  of  a  salesman ;  you  see,  I  have  been  on 
the  buying  end  nearly  all  my  life  and  I  find  myself 
constantly  taking  the  buyer's  point  of  view."  It  was 
not  until  he  walked  out  with  the  order  in  his  pocket 
that  those  who  had  heard  him  began  to  realize  just 
how  much  of  a  salesman  he  really  was^ 

7.  Opening  talk. — The  opening  remarks  of  a 
salesman  should  be  conservative.  No  superlatives 
should  be  used.  Any  over-emphasis  or  seeming  ex- 
aggeration at  this  point  will  cause  the  prospect  to  be- 
come wary  and  possibly  to  close  his  mind  against  the 
proposition. 

There  is  a  subtle  appeal  to  the  prospect's  vanity 
which  may  be  used  in  the  opening  talk.  The  average 
man  dislikes  to  feel  that  he  does  not  measure  up  to  a 
proposition.  Any  implication  of  doubt  as  to  his  con- 
cern's being  able  to  dispose  of  a  certain  quality  of 
goods,  or  of  his  being  able  to  take  advantage  of  a 
service  designed  for  progressive  business  men,  will 
cause  him  to  concentrate  his  mind  on  proving  that  the 
implication  is  unjust.  If  the  implication  is  too 
strong,  however,  or  is  in  an  offensive  form,  his  antag- 
onism will  be  aroused  as  well. 

8.  An  interest-provoking  question. — An  adroitly 


58  SALESMANSHIP 

framed  question  can  make  this  appeal  to  a  man's 
vanity  and  get  his  attention.  To  quote  Mr.  Wilham 
Maxwell,  vice-president  of  Thomas  A.  Edison, 
Inc.: 

Suppose  you  are  selling  saws.  If  they  are  high-priced 
saws,  ask  this  question  the  instant  you  get  your  man  to  look 
you  in  the  eye:  "Have  you  an  organization  that  can  sell  a 
very  high-grade  saw?"  There  is  no  possible  answer  he  can 
make  which  will  put  you  on  the  defensive  until  he  yields  you 
his  attention  and  invites  you  to  talk,  which  is  what  you  are 
there  for.  Let  us  construct  some  answers  a  buyer  might 
make  to  such  a  question: 

FIRST 

Buyer — We're  doing  it  now. 

Salesman — I  guess  I  don't  make  clear  to  you  the  kind  of 
saw  I  mean. 

Buyer — Well,  what  kind  do  you  mean.'' 

OR,    SECOND 

Buyer — What  we've  got  satisfies  us. 

Salesman — But  could  your  organization  sell  a  high-grade 
ssiw? — (Which  brings  the  buyer  back  to  where  he  was  in  the 
first  place.) 

If  a  saw  salesman  asks  the  question :  "Have  you  an  or- 
ganization that  can  sell  a  very  high-grade  saw.'"'  and  his 
rejoinder  to  the  buyer's  is  a  polite  but  emphatic  reitera- 
tion of  the  original  thought,  the  buyer  must  finally  invite  an 
elucidation  of  that  thought. 

Any  similar  question  will  serve.  Please  fix  this  point  in 
your  mind:  You  haven't  properly  analyzed  your  goods  if 
you  can't  frame  an  effective,  attention-getting  question 
for  use  in  your  approach.  The  other  day  I  was  talking  to 
a  man  who  sells  prints  to  shirtwaist  manufacturers.  He 
said,  as  nearly  every  salesman  will  say :  "My  line  is  different 
from  any  other."  He  also  said:  "There  is  no  question  I 
could  ask  a  manufacturer  of  shirt  waists,  except  to  request 
him  to  look  at  my  samples." 


THE  INTERVIEW  59 

I  asked  him  to  name  the  chief  talking  point  about  his 
goods. 

"The  prettiest  Parisian  patterns  in  advance  of  competi- 
tors," he  rephed. 

Then  I  suggested :  "Suppose  you  said  to  a  manufacturer : 
'Have  you  any  trade  that  would  appreciate  a  pattern  that  is 
a  positive  craze  in  Paris  right  now — not  yesterday  but 
to-day?'     What  would  the  manufacturer  say  to  that?" 

"Why,  he'd  say :     'Let's  see  it,'  "  was  the  answer. 

"Isn't  that  what  you  want  him  to  say?"  I  inquired. 

9.  Attention  thru  curiosity. — Curiosity  is  a  strong 
incentive  to  a  prospect's  giving  a  proposition  undi- 
vided attention.  The  opening  remarks  of  a  great 
many  able  salesmen  are  framed  to  arouse  a  healthy 
curiosity  in  the  prospect.  The  exclusive-agency  man 
referred  to  in  the  last  chapter  would  return  to  the 
store  that  he  had  picked  for  his  agency  and,  approach- 
ing the  proprietor,  would  ask:  "Do  you  remember 
me?"  "Yes,"  would  come  the  answer,  "I  sold  you  a 
key-ring  this  morning."  Thereupon  the  salesman 
would  remark  that  the  key-ring  business  had  been 
pretty  good  in  that  town,  and  holding  out  his  hand, 
would  display  those  he  had  bought.  The  proprietor 
would  naturally  want  to  know  whether  he  was  making 
a  collection.  "No,"  would  be  his  reply,  "my  firm  sent 
me  here  with  your  name  as  that  of  the  representative 
merchant  in  this  town.  My  key-ring  experiment  has 
substantiated  that  information." 

From  that  point  he  would  use  another  strong  lever 
to  get  attention.  "I  am  here,"  he  would  continue,  "to 
secure  your  opinion  of  our  new  merchandising  plan, 


60  SALESMANSHIP 

which  is  of  particular  interest  to  live  hardware  mer- 
chants. I  should  appreciate  your  going  over  our 
proposition  and  telling  me  what  you  think  of  it." 
A  prospect  finds  it  very  hard  to  refuse  to  listen  to  a 
salesman's  story  if  all  that  is  desired  at  the  end  is  a 
candid  opinion.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  this  opinion 
is  usually  favorable  and  is  expressed  by  the  prospect's 
putting  his  name  on  the  dotted  line. 

Returning  to  the  motive  of  curiosity  in  the  securing 
of  attention:  A  salesman  one  day  stepped  into  the 
office  of  the  general  manager  of  a  large  western  tele- 
phone company.  "Mr.  Manager,"  said  he,  "suppos- 
ing I  were  to  come  to  you  with  a  pencil" — drawing  one 
from  his  pocket — "with  which  your  clerk  could  write 
down  numbers" — and  suiting  the  action  to  the  word, 
he  wrote  down  several  numbers  of  four  figures  each 
— "and  after  doing  so,  could  find  the  total  of  those 
numbers  right  here  at  the  top  of  the  pencil.  That 
would  be  a  wonderful  pencil,  would  it  not?"  The 
manager  had  to  admit  that  it  would.  "Well,"  re- 
sumed the  salesman,  "I  haven't  a  pencil  that  will  do 
that,  but  here  is  a  writing  machine  that  will."  And 
forthwith  he  produced  from  his  case  a  typewriter  with 
an  adding  attachment  and  proceeded  with  a  demon- 
stration. 

10.  Dramatic  means  of  getting  attention. — Actions 
often  speak  louder  than  words  in  getting  attention. 
A  salesman  selling  a  line  of  lamp  chimneys,  one  of 
the  strong  points  of  which  was  that  the  chimneys  were 
hard  to  break,  would  walk  to  the  doorway  of  a  store 


THE  INTERVIEW  61 

that  did  not  carry  his  hne  and,  taking  one  of  his 
chimneys,  would  roll  it,  none  too  gently,  across  the 
uneven  floor  until  it  met  an  obstruction  and  bounded 
back.  "I'll  bet  you  haven't  a  chimney  in  stock  that 
you  could  do  that  with,"  he  would  then  challenge  the 
proprietor.  This  was  rather  a  spectacular  method  of 
getting  attention,  surely,  but  certainly  an  effective 
one. 

A  variation  of  this  method  is,  first  of  all,  to  attract 
attention  directly  and  forcibly  to  an  article  to  be  sold. 
A  new  city  salesman  was  employed  by  a  specialty 
house  that  sold  patented  mouse-traps  to  retail  dealers. 
The  new  man  knew  only  the  stereotyped  forms  of  in- 
troduction, and  he  approached  every  buyer  with  the 
same  formula:  "Good  morning,  Mr.  Smith.  I  am 
Mr.  Brown,  representing  the  Great  Northern  Spe- 
cialty Company.  I  have  an  article — "  but  in  the  ma- 
jority of  cases  he  got  no  further,  because  he  had 
wholly  failed  to  secure  the  busy  merchant's  attention. 
He  reported  his  difficulty  to  the  sales  manager,  who 
resolved  to  go  out  with  him  and  see  wherein  the  trouble 
lay. 

The  sales  manager  witnessed  one  of  the  salesman's 
ineffective  attempts  to  secure  a  hearing,  and  he  deter- 
mined to  make  the  next  approach  himself,  and  let  the 
salesman  observe  his  methods.  In  the  next  store,  the 
sales  manager  approached  the  buyer  and  without  a 
word  of  introduction  simply  placed  the  mouse-trap 
in  his  hands.  The  article  was  an  ingenious  con- 
trivance, and  that  fact,  together  with  the  unusual 

VI— 6 


62  SALESMANSHIP 

method  of  presenting  the  proposition,  immediately  se- 
cured the  customer's  attention.  A  brief  statement  of 
prices  and  profits  was  all  that  was  necessary  to  close 
the  sale.  The  most  cynical  buyer  cannot  avoid  a  feel- 
ing of  interest  in  any  object  that  is  placed  in  his  hands. 

11.  Prospect's  participation  iii  sale. — This  brings 
us  to  the  point  of  the  buyer's  participation  in  the  sale. 
The  handling  of  an  attractive  thing  creates  not  only 
interest  in  it,  but  also  a  desire  to  own  it  or  to  have  it 
in  stock  for  resale.  This  is  especially  true  of  me- 
chanical devices.  There  is  a  fascination  for  the  pros- 
pect in  being  able  to  push  down  the  keys  of  the  cash 
register,  have  the  bell  ring,  the  electric  light  flash  up 
and  the  cash  drawer  open.  There  is  a  satisfying  click 
when  the  lever  of  an  adding  machine  is  pulled  down. 
It  is  fascinating  to  put  letters  thru  a  fast-running 
mailometer.  It  is  interesting  to  be  able  to  type  num- 
bers on  a  typewriter  and  see  the  totals  appear.  The 
automobile  salesman  realizes  the  value  of  letting  the 
prospect  whom  he  has  taken  for  a  demonstration  ride, 
sit  at  the  wheel. 

Having  the  prospect  handle  the  commodity  is  not 
the  only  way  in  which  he  can  be  made  to  participate  in 
the  sale.  The  selhng  talk  should  be  so  phrased  as  to 
draw  him  into  conversation  and  get  him  to  tell  some- 
thing about  himself.  The  intelligent  use  of  the  in- 
formation thus  secured  often  enables  the  salesman  to 
close  the  sale.  At  each  stage  of  the  selling  talk,  the 
prospect's  agreement  with  the  statements  made  by  the 
salesman  should  be  secured  by  the  use  of  direct  ques- 


THE  INTERVIEW  63 

tions  calling  for  an  affirmative  answer.  Most  of  all, 
it  is  well  to  leave  something  to  the  imagination  of  the 
prospect  in  order  that  he  may  discover  selling  points 
for  himself.  Very  often,  a  cleverly  constructed, 
sketchy  and  incomplete  presentation  will  cause  the 
prospect  to  fill  in  the  gaps  by  using  his  imagination 
and  by  asking  questions  until  he  has  completely  sold 
himself.  Or,  if  this  is  not  easy,  he  should  at  least  be 
encouraged  to  ask  questions  which  will  bring  about  a 
full  statement  of  all  points.  Most  salesmen  talk  too 
much  and  do  not  allow  their  prospects  to  talk  enough. 
There  can  be  no  more  effective  way  to  secure  the  true 
interest  of  the  prospect  than  by  getting  him  to  partici- 
pate in  the  presentation. 

It  must  always  be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that  the 
prospect's  participation  should  be  pertinent  to  the 
stage  of  the  presentation  which  the  salesman  has 
reached.  There  is  constant  danger  that  the  talk  may 
become  irrelevant.  Many  a  salesman  who  has  called 
to  sell  an  enthusiastic  auditor  a  loose-leaf  ledger  or  a 
card  system  has  remained  for  the  afternoon  to  admire 
the  wonderful  systems  installed  by  the  auditor  who, 
in  explaining  them,  has  led  the  salesman  so  far  from 
his  subject  that  he  cannot  get  back  to  the  purpose  of 
his  call.  The  salesman  must  bear  in  mind  at  this 
point  that  he  should  be  dominating  the  situation  and 
directing  the  interview.  He  should  direct  the  partici- 
pation of  the  prospect  in  the  sale. 

12.  Securing  attention  to  a  varied  line. — Many  of 
the  principles  laid  down  here  will  seem  impossible  to 


64  SALESMANSHIP 

the  jobber's  salesman,  who  will  probably  argue  that 
he  carries  an  extensive  and  varied  line,  whereas  this 
talk  concerning  the  securing  of  attention  applies  only 
to  the  sale  of  some  one  specific  article.  It  must  be 
remembered,  however,  that  the  ordinary  introductory 
remarks  of  the  jobbing  salesman:  "I  am  representing 
Blank  and  Blank,  and  I  want  to  see  if  I  can't  interest 
you  in  our  line,"  never  did  much  more  than  pick  up  a 
few  orders  that  were  waiting  around  to  be  taken. 
The  jobbing  salesman  often  weakens  his  approach  by 
trying  to  tell  his  whole  story  and  scatter  his  talk  over 
every  article  in  his  line.  The  approach  here,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  specialty  salesman,  should  be  based 
upon  one  specific  article.  After  the  jobber's  sales- 
man has  secured  attention  to  this,  the  securing  of  at- 
tention to  other  articles  in  his  line  will  be  much  easier. 
13.  Trunk  lines  and  sample  rooms. — Let  us  discuss 
now,  for  a  moment,  the  case  of  the  salesman  carrying 
a  "trunk  line" — to  use  the  vernacular — a  line  that  in- 
volves the  carrying  of  one  or  more  large  trunks  of 
samples.  Securing  the  prospect's  attention  here,  to 
the  whole  line  at  least,  involves  persuading  him  to 
visit  the  salesman's  sample  room  at  the  hotel,  unless 
the  salesman  desires  to  bring  his  sample  trunks  up  to 
the  door  and  can  secure  the  prospect's  consent  to  do 
so.  This  is  not  usually  practicable  in  small  towns, 
because  the  salesman  will  want  several  buyers  to  see 
his  line,  and  because  there  is  no  space  in  most  small 
stores  where  he  could  open  his  trunks.  In  the  depart- 
ment stores  in  the  larger  cities  it  is  not  unusual  for 


THE  INTERVIEW  65 

sample  rooms  to  be  provided  where  the  salesman  can 
display  his  line  just  as  he  would  in  a  hotel  sample 
room;  but  even  in  such  a  case  an  appointment  must 
be  secured. 

There  are  two  great  advantages  in  getting  the 
buyer  to  come  to  the  hotel.  First,  the  opportunities 
for  displaying  the  line  are  likely  to  be  better;  and 
second,  the  buyer  is  away  from  his  place  of  business 
and  there  is  no  possibility  of  interruption  from  his 
employes. 

14.  Making  appointments. — Above  all,  if  the  sales- 
man intends  to  display  in  a  sample  room  he  should 
immediately  secure  one  at  the  hotel  and  arrange  his 
display  before  starting  out  to  secure  appointments. 
The  salesman  who  takes  a  leading  sample  or  two  from 
his  trunk  in  the  baggage  room  at  the  railroad  station, 
intending  to  secure  a  sample  room  only  in  the  event 
of  securing  appointments,  will  half  wish  that  he  may 
not  be  put  to  the  trouble ;  consequently  he  will  be  loath 
to  press  the  slightly  interested  buyer  for  an  appoint- 
ment. The  salesman  who  has  gone  to  the  trouble  of 
unpacking  his  trunk  and  arranging  his  line,  on  the 
other  hand,  will  do  everything  in  his  power  to  get 
someone  to  look  at  his  goods. 

The  "trunk  line"  man  should  bear  in  mind  that, 
while  it  is  to  the  prospect's  advantage  to  look  over 
every  line,  it  is  probably  impossible  for  him  to  do  so. 
He  is  continually  being  asked  to  look  over  one  line  or 
another  without  any  particular  reason  being  advanced 
as  to  why  he  should.     The  real  salesman  will  carry 


66  SALESMANSHIP 

one  or  two  numbers  of  remarkable  value  or  unique 
pattern  by  means  of  which  he  may  impress  his  pros- 
pects with  the  unusual  quality  of  his  goods.  He 
will  paint  a  picture  of  the  ease  with  which  his  goods 
can  be  sold  that  will  make  the  buyer  see  the  advantage 
of  looking  at  them. 

At  that  point,  and  not  before,  he  will  drive  hard 
for  an  appointment.  Then,  if  the  prospect  is  a  man 
who  keeps  his  business  appointments  with  absolute 
punctuality,  all  well  and  good.  If  there  is  the  least 
doubt  on  this  score  the  salesman,  a  little  before  the 
time  set,  will  just  happen  to  go  by  and  will  wait  for 
the  prospect  so  that  they  may  walk  to  the  hotel  to- 
gether. 

15.  Displaying  samples  attractively. — Once  the 
prospect  is  in  the  sample  room,  the  arrangement  of 
samples  will  have  much  to  do  with  securing  his  favor- 
able attention,  arousing  his  interest  and  creating  de- 
sire. The  salesman  should  learn  to  be'  an  artist  in 
displaying  his  line.  Other  things  being  equal,  the 
salesman  with  the  best  sense  of  the  artistic  will  sell 
the  most  goods.  The  ordinary  sheeting  provided  by 
the  hotel  does  not  lend  itself  to  an  effective  arrange- 
ment. A  suitable  background  should  be  carried. 
For  example,  more  cut  glass  will  be  sold  from  a  back- 
ground of  black  velvet  than  from  one  of  white  sheet- 
ing. The  unusually  effective  samples  should,  as  a 
rule,  be  displayed  with  more  ordinary  ones  surround- 
ing them;  the  placing  of  all  the  leaders  together  will 


THE  INTERVIEW  67 

put  them  in  competition,  the  one  with  the  other,  and 
result  in  the  selling  of  fewer  of  them  than  if  they  are 
separated  and  contrasted  with  the  less  attractive 
goods. 

Accessories  to  the  goods  themselves  will  enhance 
their  attractiveness.  The  millinery  salesman  will  ar- 
range his  ostrich  plumes  on  a  shape  rather  than  dis- 
play them  separately.  There  is  a  successful  shirt 
salesman  who  always  displays  his  line  with  collars  and 
harmonizing  cravats  attached. 

16.  The  "you"  attitude. — Above  all,  it  must  be  re- 
membered in  getting  attention,  that  the  prospect  is 
more  interested  in  himself  and  his  business  than  he  is 
in  the  salesman  or  the  salesman's  business.  The  lat- 
ter's  opening,  therefore,  should  always  approach  the 
proposition  from  the  prospect's  point  of  view.  Any 
talk  about  the  salesman  or  the  salesman's  house  that 
fails  to  get  the  prospect  into  the  story  is  going  to  leave 
him  cold  and  uninterested.  We  said  previously  that 
salesmanship  was  the  taking  of  the  prospect's  view- 
point and  then  swinging  him  around  to  ours.  The 
talk  to  a  jobber  should  take  him  on  an  imaginary  sell- 
ing trip  and  picture  him  selling  the  commodity  offered 
to  his  customers.  To  the  retailer  a  picture  of  himself 
reselling  the  commodity  over  his  counter  at  a  profit, 
is  bound  to  be  interesting.  The  customer  must  be 
pictured  as  enjoying  the  article.  The  prospect  for 
an  automobile  should  see  himself,  in  his  mind's  eye, 
speeding  along  in  the  sunshine  amid  the  admiration  of 


68  SALESMANSHIP 

his  friends  and  acquaintances.  By  painting  a  picture 
and  putting  the  prospect  in  it,  the  salesman  stands 
the  best  chance  of  securing  undivided  attention. 

17.  Example  of  the  "you"  attitude. — There  was  a 
stage  in  the  development  of  the  telephone  business 
when  it  was  a  simple  matter  to  persuade  a  business 
man  to  instal  a  telephone,  but  a  different  and  more 
difficult  thing  to  sell  him  an  equipment  that  was  ade- 
quate. There  was,  at  that  time,  a  department  store 
in  an  Indiana  town  that  had  but  one  wire  with  two 
extensions,  one  on  each  floor  of  the  store.  The  tele- 
phone people  were  convinced  that  this  equipment  was 
inadequate,  but  they  had  failed  on  several  occasions 
to  make  the  proprietor  recognize  that  fact.  Finally 
one  of  the  big  commercial  men  of  the  company  came 
down  from  Chicago  to  see  what  he  could  do. 

His  first  words  to  the  merchant  were:  "I  have 
come  to  talk  to  you  about  the  service  you  are  giving 
to  your  customers."  He  then  proceeded  to  show  how 
people  who  wanted  to  order  goods  over  the  phone 
found  it  difficult  to  do  so  because  they  were  kept  wait- 
ing while  others  talked  over  the  one  wire.  INIany 
times,  he  pointed  out,  this  delay  caused  them  to  decide 
not  to  order  by  phone,  but  to  buy  later  in  person. 
Sometimes  the  result  was  that  the  trade  went  to  an- 
other store.  If  the  customer  was  sufficiently  patient 
to  wait,  she  had  to  explain  the  object  of  her  call  to  the 
clerk  who  answered  the  phone  on  the  first  floor,  ex- 
plain it  again  when  she  was  connected  on  the  second 
story  extension,  and,  after  holding  the  wire  while  the 


THE  INTERVIEW  69 

proper  clerk  was  called,  she  was  obliged  to  go  over 
the  whole  matter  with  him,  a  third  time. 

Meanwhile  the  clerk  downstairs  had  been  called 
from  his  work,  the  first  clerk  who  had  answered  the 
upstairs  extension  had  been  disturbed,  and  he  or  some- 
one else  had  then  to  go  after  a  clerk  in  the  department 
to  which  the  order  belonged,  and  the  latter  probably 
had  to  travel  the  length  of  the  floor  to  reach  the  tele- 
phone. All  this  time,  customers  in  the  store  were 
being  neglected  and  kept  waiting  because  the  clerk 
who  should  have  been  at  a  certain  station  was  out  of 
his  department  answering  the  telephone. 

The  principal  theme  in  the  telephone  official's  talk 
was  customers  and  not  telephones.  The  customer 
was  a  subject  in  which  the  merchant  was  greatly  in- 
terested, so  he  asked:  "What  would  you  suggest?" 
The  telephone  man  suggested  two  trunk  lines,  a 
switchboard,  an  extension  for  each  dejDartment,  and 
an  advertisement  in  the  paper  to  the  effect  that  the 
store  was  especially  well  equipped  to  give  the  cus- 
tomer the  best  kind  of  service  on  telephone  orders. 
The  contract  was  signed  immediately.  Thruout  the 
interview  the  salesman  had  taken  the  "You"  attitude. 

18.  Interest. — Interest  is  attention  sustained  and 
developed.  Attention  is  a  temporary  interest  which 
the  prospect  takes  in  the  proposition,  and  which  he 
challenges  the  salesman  to  foster  and  sustain.  Inter- 
est as  a  development  in  the  sale  means  that  he  has  met 
that  challenge  and  secured  the  undivided  mental  con- 
centration of  the  prospect. 


70  SALESMANSHIP 

If  interest  is  aroused  at  all  it  will  show  very  early 
in  the  sale.  If  the  prospect  can  be  induced  to  give 
more  than  momentary  attention  to  a  proposition,  it 
is  safe  to  assume  that  his  interest  has  been  aroused. 
In  discussing  the  matter  of  attention  we  have  treated 
several  factors  that  have  to  do  with  interest.  When 
we  discuss  the  adoption  of  the  "you"  attitude  or  other 
methods  of  securing  the  prospect's  participation  in 
the  sale,  we  are  discussing  ways  and  means  of  increas- 
ing interest  and  ripening  it  into  desire. 

The  chief  characteristic  of  the  interest  stage  of  the 
selling  process  centers  in  the  presentation — a  thoro 
talk  on  the  proposition,  especially  as  regards  its  rela- 
tion to  the  prospect.  This  presentation  may  be  a 
logical  detailed  description,  or  it  may  be  a  vivid  ap- 
peal to  the  prospect's  imagination.  To  one  prospect 
the  salesman  may  talk  price;  to  another,  quality. 
With  one  he  must  pose  as  a  final  authority  as  to  the 
statements  he  makes;  with  another,  he  will  take  the 
attitude  of  merely  reminding  the  prospect  of  things 
that  he  already  knows,  or  of  refreshing  his  memory 
on  things  forgotten.  Wliatever  the  dominant  note, 
however,  the  presentation  should  be  related  as  closely 
as  possible  to  the  prospect's  interests  and  should  be 
couched  in  such  language  that  not  even  a  city  editor 
could  detect  a  superfluous  word. 

19.  Salesman's  vocabulary. — Two  men  try  to  ex- 
press the  same  idea.  One  flounders  about,  deals 
in  vague  generalities,  and  ends  by  giving  no  clear  idea 
of  just  what  he  is  driving  at.     The  other  uses  specific. 


THE  INTERVIEW  71 

homely,  image-making  words  that  drive  the  point 
home  in  a  trice.  The  salesman's  vocabulary  should 
be  replete  with  the  latter  sort  of  words.  It  is  only 
the  learned  man  who  can  think  in  terms  of  abstract 
generalization;  and  even  he  more  easily  grasps  spe- 
cific thoughts,  framed  in  telling  phrases.  The  sales- 
man should  see  that  his  presentation  is  free  from  dull, 
hackneyed  expression,  and  that  it  is  built  up  of  strong, 
straightforward,  specific  Anglo-Saxon  words. 

20.  Law  of  inental  domination. — Affirmation  pure 
and  simple,  separated  from  all  arguments  and  all 
proofs,  is  frequently  one  of  the  surest  means  of  im- 
pressing the  prospect.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  an 
excess  of  logical  arguments  may  give  rise  to  the  sus- 
picion that  the  salesman  is  endeavoring  to  bolster  up 
a  weak  case.  The  more  concise  the  affirmation  and 
the  freer  it  is  from  all  appearance  of  proof,  the  greater 
its  authority  at  times.  This  may  well  be  remembered 
in  building  the  presentation. 

21.  Interruptions  in  the  interview. — ^AVhere  the 
presentation  of  the  proposition  consumes  any  con- 
siderable length  of  time,  the  salesman  is  in  constant 
danger  of  some  interruption  which  may  take  the  pros- 
pect's mind  off  the  proposition  and  endanger  the  in- 
terest that  has  been  created.  The  salesman  should 
be  prepared  immediately  to  resume  the  talk  at  the 
point  of  interruption  in  some  forceful  and  interesting 
manner.  The  idea  is  to  plunge  the  prospect  immedi- 
ately back  into  the  state  of  mental  concentration  in 
which  he  was  before  the  interruption  occurred.     The 


72  SALESMANSHIP 

showing  of  a  new  piece  of  the  salesman's  equipment 
is  an  effective  way  of  doing  this.  When  the  interrup- 
tion has  been  more  than  momentary  the  prospect 
should  be  reminded  of  the  point  where  the  conversa- 
tion stopped,  by  some  such  statement  as:  "When  we 
were  interrupted,  we  were  discussing  the  mechanical 
features."  If  the  interruption  has  been  for  as  long 
as  ten  or  fifteen  minutes,  the  chances  are  that  the 
prospect  has  grown  cold  and  must  be  warmed  up 
again.  This  is  done  by  a  concise  review  of  the  whole 
proposition  up  to  the  point  at  which  the  interruption 
occurred.  The  presentation  proceeds  as  usual  from 
that  point. 

22.  Demonstration. — If  the  commodity  sold  is  such 
as  to  make  it  possible,  a  demonstration  of  its  con- 
struction and  use  is  made  a  part  of  the  presentation. 
Here  is  a  great  opportunity  for  the  salesman.  An 
actual  demonstration  emphasizes  the  essential  points 
as  no  mere  statement  can.  It  brings  uj)  a  constant 
procession  of  items  of  interest  that  the  customer  can 
see  for  himself,  and  makes  the  retaining  of  interest 
and  the  ripening  of  it  into  desire  much  easier  than 
would  otherwise  be  the  case. 

So  true  is  this  that  ingenious  demonstration  meth- 
ods are  often  devised  for  a  commodity  that  does  not 
lend  itself  readily  to  demonstration.  Witness  the 
lamp  chimney  demonstration  described  in  this  chap- 
ter. 

A  young  man  selling  a  new  line  of  cast-iron,  porce- 


THE  INTERVIEW  73 

Iain-enameled  bath  tubs,  who  called  upon  the  plumb- 
ing trade,  found  it  difficult  to  establish  distribution  be- 
cause cast-iron  bath  tubs  are  likely  to  crack  or  craze. 
To  overcome  this  difficulty,  the  salesman  carried  with 
him  a  small  model  bath  tub  and  a  heavy  piece  of 
lead.  To  impress  the  plumber  with  the  fact  that  his 
was  a  good  tub,  he  could  throw  the  piece  of  lead  vio- 
lently into  it.  No  more  forceful  method  of  antici- 
pating the  "crack  and  craze"  objection  could  be  de- 
vised. 

23.  Principles  of  demonstration,  and  prospect's 
participation. — A  great  many  articles  lend  themselves 
very  readily  to  demonstration.  Discourse  as  one  wilf 
upon  the  superiorities  of  a  vacuum  cleaner,  it  would 
be  next  to  impossible  to  sell  vacuum  machines  in  satis- 
factory volume  without  running  the  machine  over  the 
floor  and  dusting  around  the  moldings  and  wood- 
work of  at  least  one  room,  if  the  demonstration  is 
given  in  the  home  of  the  prospect ;  or  cleaning  thoroly 
a  rug,  sprinkled  with  sand  or  powder  if  the  demon- 
stration is  given  in  the  salesroom.  In  either  case, 
the  demonstrator  will  strew  the  carpet  with  cotton 
batting  in  order  to  show  just  how  thoroly  the  machine 
will  remove  lint.  In  either  case,  too,  the  prospect  will 
be  induced  to  operate  the  machine  just  as  much  as 
possible. 

The  cash  register  is  usually  demonstrated  by  carry- 
ing thru  a  number  of  imaginary  conmiercial  transac- 
tions— the  salesman  acting  as  the  customer  and  paying 
real  money  for  his  purchases,  and  the  prospect  act- 


74  SALESMANSHIP 

ing  as  the  merchant,  so  that  it  will  be  he  who  actually 
rings  up  the  cash,  makes  the  change  and  closes  the 
cash  register  drawer.  Altho  this  necessitates  the 
salesman's  stepping  out  of  the  role  of  purchaser  and 
giving  the  prospect  instructions  for  the  operation  of 
the  machine,  it  is  important  to  arrange  the  demon- 
stration in  this  way  so  as  to  secure  easily  and  naturally 
the  prospect's  participation  in  the  demonstration. 
Much  the  same  plan  is  carried  out  in  selling  the  adding 
machine,  the  salesman  calling  off  the  figures  and  in- 
structing the  prospect  just  how  to  register  the  num- 
bers on  the  keys  and  how  to  pull  down  the  lever. 

The  demonstration  of  a  loose-leaf  device  will  con- 
sist of  unlocking  and  locking  the  binder  and  remov- 
ing and  inserting  the  leaves.  A  famous  brand  of 
overalls  is  demonstrated  by  the  salesman  having  the 
prospect  take  firm  hold  of  one  leg  of  the  trousers 
while  he  grasps  the  other  and  exerts  considerable  pull- 
ing force  to  demonstrate  the  strength  of  the  crotch. 

Few  automobiles  are*  sold  without  a  demonstration. 
The  prospect  is  taken  out  in  the  machine  for  a  trial 
run  during  which  the  car  is  "put  thru  its  paces"  and 
its  good  points  are  demonstrated,  especially  its  hill- 
climbing  ability  and  its  quickness  in  the  "getawaj\" 
At  some  stage  in  the  demonstration  the  prospect  is 
invited  to  slide  over  into  the  driver's  seat  and  run  the 
car  himself.  If  any  desire  at  all  has  been  aroused 
previously,  the  prospect's  joy  at  actually  handling  the 
wheel  is  likely  to  be  so  keen  as  to  clinch  the  sale  on  the 
spot.     This  demonstrating  is  so  important  a  phase  of 


THE  INTERVIEW  75 

the  automobile  business  that  special  demonstrating 
drivers  are  often  employed  and  a  certain  number  of 
cars  are  each  year  used  as  demonstrators  until  their 
newness  wears  off;  these  machines  are  then  sold  as 
second-hand  cars. 

The  exact  nature  of  any  demonstration  must  de- 
pend entirely  upon  the  nature  of  the  commodity  to  be 
sold;  but,  in  general,  it  may  be  said  that  all  facilities 
for  demonstrating  the  article  to  best  advantage  should 
be  provided,  and  the  demonstration  should  be  so 
planned  as  to  allow  the  prospect  to  participate  in  it 
just  as  much  as  possible. 

It  may  be  laid  down  as  a  principle  that  an  actual 
demonstration  should  be  worked  into  the  presentation 
wherever  the  nature  of  the  commodity  permits. 

24.  Threefold  confidence. — The  true  salesman  will 
have  struck  a  note  of  confidence  at  the  very  out- 
set of  the  interview.  As  has  been  explained,  confi- 
dence must  pervade  the  interview  and  grow  as  the 
sale  develops.  The  prospect  must  be  confident  that 
the  goods  are  the  product  of  a  house  of  unquestioned 
reputation,  and  that  they  will  measure  up  to  the  sam- 
ple; he  must  have  confidence,  too,  in  the  salesman's 
statements  as  to  the  yet  unproved  quality  of  his  com- 
modity. The  salesman  will  have  created  and  in- 
creased this  confidence  by  his  personality,  his  knowl- 
edge of  his  business,  his  conservative  statements,  and 
by  his  dignity,  simplicity,  frankness,  sincerity  and 
earnestness.  In  brief,  then,  before  interest  can  be  de- 
veloped into  desire,  the  })uyer  must  have  a  threefold 


76  SALESMANSHIP 

confidence — in  the  salesman,  in  the  goods  and  in  the 
house  behind  them. 

REVIEW 

Discuss  the  opening  talk  and  the  first  few  moments  of  the 
selling  interview,  especially  indicating  the  conditions  of  atten- 
tion of  the  right  kind. 

Could  you  devise  an  attention-getting  question  for  your  line? 

How  would  you  secure  attention  to  a  varied  line?  To  a 
"Trunk"  line? 

Discuss  the  "interest"  stage  of  the  selling  interview,  the  "you" 
attitude  and  the  prospect's  participation  in  the  sale. 

Do  the  goods  of  your  concern  lend  themselves  readily  to 
demonstration?     Can  they  be  demonstrated  at  all? 

Discuss  confidence  and  its  part  in  the  sale. 

How  would  you  handle  interruptions? 


CHAPTER  V 

SELLING  PROCESS— THE  AGREEMENT 

1.  Meeting  objections. — During  the  progress  of 
the  selling  talk,  occasional  doubts,  questions  or  con- 
ditions, either  reasoned  or  unreasoned,  are  ahnost 
certain  to  arise,  and  these  must  be  removed  before  in- 
terest can  be  ripened  into  desire.  The  cause  of  sales- 
manship received  a  severe  setback  when  these  mental 
conditions  on  the  part  of  the  prospect  were  termed 
objections;  and  it  received  an  even  greater  setback 
when  the  salesman's  methods  of  meeting  them  w^ere 
called  arguments.  The  term  used  by  psychologists  to 
designate  any  mental  condition  that  opposes  a  mental 
impulse  to  action  is  "inhibition"  or  "inhibiting 
thought."  Either  of  these  is  probably  a  better  term 
to  use  than  objection,  to  denote  a  mental  condition 
that  prevents  a  prospect  from  buying,  for  while  the 
so-called  objections  of  the  prospect  are  sometimes 
decided  objections  to  the  proposition  presented,  they 
are  more  often  honest  questions  and  slight  doubts, 
which  the  prospect  himself  is  confident  that  the  sales- 
man will  clear  up.  Argument  suggests  fight,  but  re- 
moving inhibitions  is  merely  another  case  of  swinging 
the  prospect  from  his  point  of  view  to  the  salesman's 

— a  small  sale  within  the  big  one. 

VI— 7  77 


78  SALESMANSHIP 

2.  Antagonism  or  a  friendly  get-together. — J.  K. 
Fraser,  vice-president,  Blackman  Company,  says  in 
Printer's  Ink: 

The  new  salesman  expects  the  buyer  to  oppose  him.  His 
attitude  shows  it.  Consciously  or  unconsciously  he  puts  a 
chip  on  his  shoulder.  The  prospective  purchaser  sees  it. 
Our  new  salesman's  talk  then  has  a  double  burden — it  must 
properly  present  the  goods  he  is  selling;  it  must  overcome 
the  antagonism  created  by  his  own  fighting  attitude.  If  the 
prospective  buyer  will  talk  at  all  in  self-defense  his  talk  is 
antagonistic.  In  the  face  of  this  our  new  salesman  comes 
ahead  with  facts,  figures  and  logic.  They  tell  the  story,  but 
they  don't  change  the  attitude.  Few  men  will  buy  until  that 
attitude  is  changed.  Almost  invariably  sales  result  from  a 
friendly  get-together.  Arguments  are  necessary,  but  they 
are  effective  only  so  far  as  they  harmonize  with  a  friendly 
interview.  If  they  are  used  to  create  a  stand-off  attitude 
they  defeat  themselves. 

3.  Anticipating  the  objection. — The  best  way  to 
overcome  an  inliibition,  objection  or  excuse — call  it 
what  you  will — is  to  anticipate  it,  and  in  this  way,  if 
possible,  to  make  sure  that  it  never  obtrudes  into  the 
sales  talk  at  all.  A  thought  that  is  expressed  is 
harder  to  change  than  one  which  is  unexpressed  be- 
cause the  prospect  puts  himself  on  record  and  dislikes 
to  recede  from  his  position.  This  difficulty  may  read- 
ily be  prevented.  Thru  continually  presenting  a  par- 
ticular proposition,  the  salesman,  together  with  his 
colleagues  in  the  same  organization,  will  discover 
that  certain  points  arise  in  ahnost  every  canvass. 
These  are  stock  objections,  so  to  speak.  The  sales- 
man builds  his  presentation  so  as  to  anticipate  them. 


THE  AGREEMENT  79 

Others,  less  common,  are  found  to  be  peculiar  to  cer- 
tain types  of  prospects.  The  salesman  prepares  ef- 
fective answers  to  these  and  weaves  them  into  his  talk 
where  he  expects  them  to  come  up.  By  adroit  ques- 
tioning and  by  close  analysis  of  the  prospect's  remarks 
during  the  interview,  the  salesman  tries  to  discover 
any  inhibiting  thoughts  in  the  prospect's  mind  as  he 
proceeds  with  his  presentation.  It  will  be  found  that, 
with  rare  exceptions,  objections  to  any  specific  propo- 
sition are  not  peculiar  to  the  individual  prospect. 
Usually  they  are  old  opponents  that  the  salesman 
looks  for  and  is  prepai^d  to  anticipate. 

4.  When  to  mention  price. — The  inhibition  of 
price,  the  most  common  and  the  most  formidable  in 
almost  every  line,  is  anticipated  by  avoiding  all 
mention  of  price  until  the  quality  and  worth  of  the 
article,  or  possible  profits  from  its  resale,  are  firmly 
established  and  very  clear  in  the  mind  of  the  pros- 
pect. This  point  is  so  important  that  price,  except 
in  rare  instances,  should  not  be  mentioned  early  in  the 
presentation  even  in  response  to  the  definite  question 
of  the  prospect.  The  specialty  salesman's  reply  to 
that  question,  if  it  came  up  before  he  was  ready  for  it, 
might  be:  "Let  us  decide  whether  you  want  this 
first.  Then  we  will  talk  price.  I  think  I  can  put  it 
within  your  reach."  Then  he  will  slip  quickly  back 
into  his  presentation.  A  salesman  who  presented  a 
proposition  for  the  handling  of  cigars  in  drug  stores, 
which  involved  the  buying  of  expensive  fixtures,  was 
often  asked:     "Well,  what  is  the  expense  of  all  this?" 


80  SALESMANSHIP 

His  reply  was:  "This  is  not  an  expense  at  all,  Mr. 
Prospect.  You  may  expect  a  big  increase  in  your 
profits  from  it."  This  would  forestall  the  price  ques- 
tion until  he  was  ready  for  it.  The  ideal  time  to  men- 
tion price  is  when,  after  the  presentation,  the  pros- 
pect's desire  is  so  strong  that  he  asks  the  price. 

5.  Unreasoned  inhibition. — It  has  been  suggested 
that  inhibitions  may  be  unreasoned.  That  is,  the 
prospect  himself  may  have  no  clear  idea  of  why  he 
does  not  desire  the  salesman's  proposition;  or,  at 
least,  may  express  none.  The  salesman  may  take  this 
unformulated  resistance  as  an  indication  that  he  has 
not  made  the  prospect  want  his  proposition  hard 
enough;  and,  by  doubling  back  and  using  his  reserve 
in  such  a  way  as  practically  to  give  the  prospect  a  new 
selling  talk,  he  can  probably  remove  the  resistance  by 
increasing  the  prospect's  desire. 

6.  Tact  in  oppomig  the  prospect. — Despite  all  that 
even  the  best  salesmen  can  do,  doubts  or  excuses  will 
sometimes  be  voiced.  Then  there  is  danger  of  killing 
the  prospect's  idea  too  quickly.  It  humiliates  a  man 
to  have  the  props  rudely  kicked  out  from  under  a 
statement  that  he  has  advanced  as  sound.  When  the 
salesman  wins  such  an  out-and-out  argument  or  other- 
wise humiliates  the  prospect  he  usually  loses  a  sale. 

The  salesman  will  steer  his  course  to  avoid  a 
head-on  collision.  He  is  glad  the  prospect  mentioned 
that  point.  He  hesitates — it  is  something  new, 
something  ingenious  that  the  ordinary  run  of  pros- 
pects would  not  think  of.     He  can  see  that  there  may 


THE  AGREEMENT  81 

be  something  in  it.  And  then  he  mildly  wonders 
whether  this  point  or  that  point  which  possibly  the 
prospect  may  have  overlooked,  would  not  modify  the 
point  in  question.  And  then  the  prospect  begins  to 
discover  answers  to  his  own  objections  and  ends  up 
by  trying  to  prove  to  the  salesman  just  why  his  orig- 
inal point  was  unsound.  Every  statement  made, 
however,  has  been  positive  no  matter  how  softly  in- 
sinuated. The  salesman  has  started  with  obvious 
statements  and  has  stopped  just  at  the  point  where 
the  prospect  begins  to  discover  things  for  himself. 

7.  Faulty  presentation  creates  inliibitions. — It  is 
possible  to  create  inhibitory  thoughts  in  the  minds  of 
the  prospect  by  the  methods  used  or  statements  made 
during  the  presentation.  A  specialty  salesman  is 
likely  to  emphasize  the  big  users  of  his  product  to  such 
an  extent  that  the  small  business  man  to  whom  he  is 
talking  will  come  to  the  conclusion  that  only  big  busi- 
ness men  can  use  the  product  to  advantage.  A  staple 
salesman  can  make  such  a  point  of  high  quality  with 
the  grocer  in  an  ordinary  neighborhood  that  his  pros- 
pect will  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  article  would 
move  only  in  wealthy  communities.  An  automobile 
salesman  who  endeavored  to  show  his  prospect  that 
he  had  perfect  control  of  his  machine  at  high  speed 
on  crowded  Fifth  Avenue  was  stopped  by  a  traffic 
policeman  and  served  with  a  summons  to  appear  in 
court  next  morning  on  a  charge  of  reckless  speeding. 

The  suggestion  to  buy  a  product  because  substan- 
tial men  in  the  community  have  bought  it  will  often 


82  SALESMANSHIP 

be  a  strong  incentive  to  action  for  the  young  fellow; 
to  the  man  who  values  independence  highly  and  who 
thinks  he  possesses  individuality  the  suggestion  may 
be  obnoxious,  unless  it  is  very  gradually  introduced. 

8.  Daring  and  independence. — Sometimes  a  bit  of 
daring  at  this  point  is  a  short-cut  to  the  order.  Hugh 
Chalmers  tells  how  he  was  once  sent  to  sell  a  cash 
register  to  a  typical  "hard  customer."  At  the  end  of 
the  selling  talk,  the  prospect  said,  rising  as  if  to  end 
the  interview:  "Your  proposition  is  all  right  but  it 
costs  too  much  money."  Mr.  Chalmers  replied: 
"That  is  an  objection  we  often  hear.  You  know  the 
selling  policies  of  my  company  well  enough  to  know 
that  I  have  been  supplied  with  more  than  fifty  an- 
swers to  that  one  objection  and  you  have  listened  to 
me  long  enough  to  know  that  I  know  every  one  of 
those  answers.  They  are  so  forceful  that  they  would 
convince  any  man.  Now,  I  can  use  these  arguments 
here  and  get  your  order  but  it  will  take  me  two  hours 
to  do  it.  Your  time  is  worth  something,  why  not  sign 
now?"  This  proved  successful  in  this  case,  but  such 
methods  must  be  used  with  discretion. 

An  independent  attitude,  where  it  can  be  safely 
and  effectively  assumed,  is  a  powerful  weapon  with 
which  to  make  the  prospect  forget  his  doubts  or  ex- 
cuses and  lean  the  salesman's  way.  Our  exclusive- 
agency  man  of  the  key-rings,  referred  to  in  the  previ- 
ous chapter,  met  most  objections  to  his  exclusive- 
agency  plan  in  somewhat  this  manner:  "Now,  Mr. 
Dealer,  we  don't  argue  this  proposition  at  all.     I  am 


THE  AGREEMENT  83 

here  merely  to  explain  it  to  you,  to  answer  any  ques- 
tions that  may  occur  to  you,  to  get  your  opinion,  and, 
if  the  proposition  as  I  describe  it  appeals  to  you,  to 
allow  you  to  have  the  exclusive  agency  in  this  town 
for  these  goods.  If,  when  I  am  thru,  you  don't  care 
to  accept  the  proposition,  all  well  and  good.  I  shall 
simply  have  to  go  over  the  ground  again  with  one  of 
the  other  hardware  men."  This  coui'teously  inde- 
pendent attitude,  where  it  can  be  assumed,  is  just  as 
effective  as  over-anxiety  is  weak. 

9.  Discussing  competitors'  goods. — There  is  an  old 
saying  to  the  effect :  If  your  competitor  talks  about 
you,  put  him  on  your  pay-roll.  It  matters  little 
whether  what  he  says  is  favorable  or  unfavorable ;  put 
him  on  anyhow.  This  would  indicate  that  a  salesman 
should  avoid  being  di'awn  into  controversy  regarding 
his  competitors'  goods.  He  should  know  all  about 
them,  their  strong  points  and  their  weak  points,  so 
tliat  he  may  touch  these  points  indirectly  in  his  presen- 
tation. A  successful  dry  goods  man  has  this  answer 
to  remarks  about  competing  lines:  "The  company 
I  am  with  puts  out  the  best  line  in  this  country.  If  I 
thought  there  was  a  better  one,  I  should  be  carrying  it 
— and  with  my  record  I  should  have  no  trouble  mak- 
ing the  change.  Until  I  have  changed  you  may  be 
sure  that  I  have  been  unable  to  locate  a  line  that  is 
better  than  mine."  And  he  may  go  on  to  say  a  few 
things  about  his  company  and  his  methods  that  will 
clinch  that  idea  in  the  mind  of  the  prospect.  It  is 
best  not  to  discuss  competitors'  goods. 


84  SALESMANSHIP 

Some  lines  of  goods  seem  to  invite  comparison — 
addressing  machines  and  typewriting  machines,  for 
example.  It  is  best  to  anticipate  the  selling  points 
usually  made  for  rival  machines  by  emphasizing  simi- 
lar, but  stronger  points  in  regard  to  the  machine  being 
sold.  Another  method  is  to  point  out  the  fact  that 
the  machine  being  sold  does  not  have  the  weak  jDoints 
of  competing  articles — always,  whenever  possible, 
without  mentioning  the  name  of  the  competing  com- 
modity. Whenever  the  prospect  definitely  mentions 
a  competing  article  and  asks  how  it  compares  on  cer- 
tain points  with  the  one  being  discussed,  the  answer 
should  always  be  given  so  as  to  savor  as  little  as  pos- 
sible of  what  is  commonly  termed  "knocking";  and 
the  comparison  should  generally  be  accompanied  by 
the  admission  that  the  competing  article  is  a  good 
one,  albeit  with  the  unmistakable  insinuation  that  the 
one  being  sold  is  a  better  one. 

10.  Minimizing  objections. — After  all  is  said  and 
done,  the  salesman  must  realize  that  some  criticisms 
are  just  idly  voiced  and  will  quickly  fade  from  the 
mind  of  the  prospect  if  the  salesman  merely  ignores 
and  forgets  them.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  he  makes  a 
mountain  out  of  a  mole  hill  the  prospect  will  un- 
doubtedly do  the  same.  The  salesman  will  learn  to 
discern  the  opinion  in  which  the  prospect  himself  does 
not  really  believe,  and  to  treat  it  accordingly. 

The  way  to  handle  an  objection  of  this  style  is  not 
to  answer  it  in  detail,  but  to  touch  upon  it  as  briefly 
as  possible  and  then  go  right  around  it,  continuing 


THE  AGREEMENT  85 

with  the  main  body  of  the  presentation;  or,  if  the 
presentation  has  been  completed,  to  use  as  reserve  talk 
the  points  that  are  most  calculated  to  arouse  a  genuine 
desire  in  the  prospect. 

11.  Objections  indicating  lack  of  desire.  It  is  a 
psychological  fact  that  the  prospect  whom  the  sales- 
man's presentation  has  not  impressed  sufficiently  to 
prompt  his  buying,  almost  invariably  endeavors  to 
qualify  his  refusal  with  a  reason  for  not  buying.  He 
grasps  and  voices  the  first  objection  or  excuse  that 
occurs  to  him.  The  salesman  nmst  learn  to  recognize 
the  excuse  that  arises  from  this  cause,  and  to  realize 
that  he  has  not  made  the  prospect  really  want  his 
proposition.  Here  again,  the  thing  to  do  is  to  handle 
the  objection  stated  as  briefly  as  possible  and  then  en- 
deavor to  remedy  the  real  defect — lack  of  sincere  de- 
sire— by  launching  into  a  reserve  selling  talk  which, 
in  some  cases,  may  amount  to  presentation  from  an 
entirely  new  angle.  A  prospect's  objection  that  he 
cannot  afford  to  spend  the  money  for  a  proposition 
really  means,  if  the  prospect  has  been  carefully  se- 
lected, that  he  doesn't  care  to  spend  the  necessary 
money  for  a  proposition  for  which  the  salesman  can 
arouse  no  more  desire  in  him  than  he  has  yet  aroused. 
And  obviously,  the  thing  to  do  is  to  increase  that  desire 
and  not  to  endeavor  to  prove  to  the  prospect  that  he 
has  the  money. 

12.  Desire. — Desire,  as  a  development  of  the  sale, 
means  a  want  on  the  part  of  the  prospect  sufficiently 
strong  to  prompt  the  purchase.     All  thru  the  inter- 


86  SALESMANSHIP 

view  there  will  have  been  running  thru  the  prospect's 
mind  some  such  subconscious  question  as,  "Can  I  af- 
ford to  spend  the  money  for  the  value  and  advantages 
offered?"  To  create  desire  means  to  arouse  in  the 
prospect's  mind  an  emphatic  answering  "yes" — 
strong  enough  to  develop  the  impulse  to  reach  for  a 
pen  and  sign  the  order,  if  that  formality  is  necessary. 
This  statement  presupposes,  of  course,  that  all  inhibit- 
ing thoughts  have  been  removed  or  overcome. 

A  salesman  may  feel  quite  sure  that  he  is  holding 
a  man's  attention;  he  may  rightly  say  to  himself,  "I 
have  his  interest."  But  who  can  say  with  any  amount 
of  assurance:  "I  have  successfully  removed  every 
inhibiting  factor  and  I  have  created  desire?"  We 
shall  see  that  long  after  we  have  begun  our  closing- 
tactics  we  are  still  testing  for  inhibiting  factors — 
there  is  still  a  possibility  of  the  prospect's  drawing- 
back.  He  who  could,  in  every  case,  sense  the  particu- 
lar moment  when  desire  has  been  created,  would  in- 
deed be  a  super-salesman,  for  that  is  the  "psycholog- 
ical moment." 

13.  Desire  and  the  "you"  attitude. — This  does  not 
mean  that  there  are  no  well-defined  methods  of  cre- 
ating a  desire  upon  the  part  of  the  prospect.  Here 
again,  we  come  to  the  importance  of  the  "you"  atti- 
tude. There  is  one  gi-eat  principle  underlying  the 
creation  of  desire,  from  which  special  inethods  can  be 
worked  out  in  the  case  of  any  particular  commodity. 
That  principle  is,  to  show  the  prospect  how  he  will 
profit  by  the  purchase — to  show  him  just  why  he  can- 


THE  AGREEMENT  87 

not  afford  not  "to  spend  the  money  for  the  value  and 
advantages  offered." 

In  applying  this  principle,  the  grocery  or  dry  goods 
salesman,  after  he  has  interested  his  prospect  in  the 
quality  of  the  goods  and  increased  that  interest  by 
pointing  out  how  readily  they  can  be  sold,  will  paint  a 
picture  of  the  rapidity  with  which  the  goods  will  move 
and  will  talk  in  terms  of  dollars  and  cents  and  profits. 
This  method  will  be  followed  even  if  he  is  endeavoring 
to  stock  the  dealer  up  with  a  branded  staple  on  which 
the  profit  is  smaller  than  on  the  line  the  prospect  now 
carries.  For  here  he  will  talk  the  indirect  profit  of 
handling  the  line — the  fact  that  people  will  drop  in  for 
that  particular  thing  and  remain  to  make  other  pur- 
chases. Or  he  may  point  out  that  while  the  profit  per 
unit  is  smaller  than  on  the  line  that  the  prospect  is 
handling,  the  total  profit  is  larger  because  the  new 
goods  will  have  a  quicker  turnover. 

A  vacuum  cleaner  salesman  had  secured  the  atten- 
tion and  aroused  the  interest  of  both  the  housewife 
and  her  husband  by  discoursing  on  the  superiority  of 
vacuum  cleaners,  showing  by  an  actual  demonstration 
what  the  machine  could  do,  and  pointing  out  the  con- 
venience and  superiority  of  his  particular  machine. 
He  then  abruptly  put  the  machine  aside,  put  away  all 
literature  as  to  its  mechancal  details,  and,  leaning 
forward,  said:  "Now,  Mrs.  Brown,  it  is  not  really  a 
vacuum  cleaning  machine  that  I  am  asking  you  to 
buy.  I  am  asking  you  to  buy  an  hour  a  day  for  the 
rest  of  your  life.     I  am  asking  you  to  buy  the  time  to 


88  SALESMANSHIP 

get  out  afternoons — to  take  in  a  matinee  on  Wednes- 
day— and  still  keep  your  home  just  as  neat  and  clean 
as  it  is  now."  This  argument,  in  addition  to  showing 
a  further  advantage,  presented  such  a  vivid  appeal  to 
the  imagination,  that  he  created  a  desire,  not  for  the 
machine  itself,  but  for  that  hour  a  day. 

A  writer  on  various  scientific  and  business  subjects 
was  telling  why  he  had  bought  a  children's  pictorial  en- 
cyclopedia. He  said  that  even  tho  he  had  no  children 
he  had  been  interested  in  the  salesman's  presentation, 
tho  in  a  detached  sort  of  way.  Then,  the  salesman 
switched  to  a  talk  on  the  advantages  of  depicting 
scientific  phenomena  and  business  processes  by  pic- 
tures and  short,  easily  understood  descriptions,  rather 
than  by  the  long  and  involved  descriptions  common  to 
the  ordinary  "grown-up's"  encyclopedia.  Wouldn't 
it  be  easy,  he  wanted  to  know,  for  the  writer  to  get 
information  quickly  in  this  manner  for  his  own  arti- 
cles? He  clinched  his  argument  by  showing  the  en- 
tire steel  industry,  from  the  digging  of  the  ore  to  the 
rolhng  of  steel  rails,  pictorially  described.  The  au- 
thor said  that  after  running  over  these  pictures  with 
the  salesman,  he  understood  the  different  processes  in 
the  manufacture  of  steel  more  clearly  than  ever  be- 
fore. And  right  there  he  decided  that  the  encyclo- 
pedia would  be  a  big  advantage  to  him.  It  will  be 
seen  that  the  salesman  created  desire  by  following  the 
same  old  formula  of  showing  the  prospect  how  he 
would  profit  by  buying. 

There  is  a  time-honored  and  very  effective  saying* 


THE  AGREEMENT  89 

that  when  a  man  needs  a  thing  he  pays  for  it,  whether 
he  buys  it  or  not;  and  this  principle  can  be  apphed 
to  ahnost  any  proposition.  The  adding-typewriter 
salesman  proves  it  to  his  prospect  by  figuring  the 
higher  cost  of  making  out  bills  by  the  old  method. 
The  branded-staple  man  shows  the  dealer  that  he  will 
pay  in  lost  sales  if  he  does  not  stock  up.  The  ex- 
clusive-agency man  shows  that  the  dealer  will  lose 
profits  that  will  go  to  his  competitor  if  he  does  not 
accept  the  agency  in  question^.  The  advertising  so- 
licitor shows  that  the  merchant  who  needs  advertising 
will  pay  for  it  many  times  over  in  trade  that  passes 
by  his  door  if  he  does  not  secure  that  trade  thru  the 
medium  of  advertising.  The  life  insurance  solicitor 
will  intimate  that  the  family  of  the  man  who  needs 
insurance  and  does  not  take  it,  pays  the  premium  after 
he  is  gone.  These  are  but  variations  of  the  "self- 
interest"  principle. 

14.  Desire  indicated. — Desire  may  be  indicated  by 
the  prospect's  asking  the  price  of  the  commodity  of- 
fered; and  if,  in  addition,  he  inquires  as  to  terms  of 
payments,  he  is  evincing  a  most  healthy  desire.  INIost 
salesmen,  particularly  those  who  represent  specialty 
propositions,  adjust  their  presentations  so  as  to  bring 
out  this  price  question  at  the  point  at  which  they  cal- 
culate desire  will  have  been  created. 

It  should  not  be  understood  that  there  is  neces- 
sarily any  visible  indication  that  desire  has  been  cre- 
ated. The  salesman  will  find  that  many  prospects 
will  observe  a  sphinx-Hke  silence  and  an  unchanging 


90  SALESMANSHIP 

expression  thruout  the  entire  presentation.  And 
furthermore,  the  salesman  will  learn  that  these  are 
among  his  best  prospects.  The  converse  is  true  also ; 
the  over-enthusiastic  individual  who  agrees  too  readily 
with  everything  the  salesman  says,  and  who  evinces 
all  the  signs  of  a  healthy  desire,  will  oftentimes 
allow  himself  to  be  led  right  up  to  the  closing  point, 
and  then  refuse  to  buy  or  to  give  a  definite  reason  for 
not  buying.  Whatever  the  manifestation,  the  instant 
the  salesman  has  reached  the  climax  of  his  "advan- 
tage" talk,  is  the  time  to  take  the  hazard  on  the  clos- 
ing tactics. 

15.  The  close. — We  now  come  to  the  crux  of  the 
whole  sale — in  fact,  the  crux  of  all  salesmanship.  It 
is  the  point,  too,  at  which  most  of  our  failures  become 
apparent,  at  least  to  ourselves.  We  may  sit  down  at 
the  close  of  each  day  and  plan  the  work  for  the  next ; 
we  may  burn  the  midnight  oil  studying  our  goods ;  we 
ma}^  rack  our  brains  in  an  effort  to  clothe  uninterest- 
ing details  with  a  garment  of  imaginative  appeal;  we 
may  spend  eight  hours  a  day  painting  beautiful  word- 
pictures  to  numerous  prospects;  but  our  work  will  be 
largely  wasted,  or  at  least  will  not  bring  us  the  results 
it  should,  if  the  selling  talk  does  not  have  a  coura- 
geous, compelling  close. 

If  attention  has  been  developed  into  interest,  and  if 
interest  has  given  place  to  desire,  the  time  to  close — 
that  oft-mentioned  psychological  moment — has  ar- 
rived. For  this  psychological  moment  marks  the 
maximum  force  of  the  buying  impulse — all  inhibiting 


THE  AGREEMENT  91 

thoughts  have  been  subjugated,  and  desire  is  at  its 
height.  Its  presence  is  sensed  by  some  salesmen  more 
readily  than  by  others,  and  sensed  by  all  more  easily 
in  some  cases  than  in  others.  Some  profess  to  know 
in  every  case  just  when  it  arrives,  but  to  do  this  would 
require  reading  the  hmnan  mind  as  an  open  book  and 
never  making  a  mistake  in  closing.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  no  salesman  closes  all  the  sales  he  endeavors  to 
close. 

When  we  say  that  the  psychological  moment  has 
passed,  we  mean  that  there  has  been  in  the  interview 
a  time  when  all  inhibiting  thoughts  were  removed, 
the  desire  was  created  and  the  man  made  ready  for 
closing,  but  that  by  clumsy  closing  tactics,  an  awk- 
ward delay,  or  by  talking  beyond  the  point,  the  sales- 
man has  given  the  prospect  an  opportunity  to  create 
a  new  set  of  inhibitions.  As  one  writer  has  put  it,  he 
has  recovered  his  shield  of  doubt  and  sword  of  dis- 
agreement, and  put  the  salesman  to  rout. 

16.  Securing  decision. — Whether,  on  the  one  hand, 
the  jDsychological  moment  has  been  sensed,  or,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  salesman  merely  feels  that  he  may 
have  created  desire,  there  are  certain  closing  tactics 
to  be  gone  thru.  These  consist  largely  of  what  may 
be  termed  the  mechanics  of  closing;  and  these  me- 
chanics are  based  on  the  law  of  positive  suggestion. 

In  this  connection  it  might  be  well  to  remind  the 
reader  once  again  that  at  no  point  does  this  Text  view 
the  prospect  as  a  victim  to  be  played  upon  by  the 
salesman  against  the  former's  better  interests.     And 


92  SALESMANSHIP 

we  emphasize  that  viewpoint  now.  It  is  a  peculiar 
fact  that  nearly  all  men,  except  perhaps  the  biggest 
of  business  executives,  are  addicted,  to  some  extent 
at  least,  to  indecision  and  procrastination.  They 
gather  all  the  essential  points  on  some  proposition, 
weigh  them  pro  and  con — and  then  put  the  whole 
thing  over  until  the  morrow.  They  want  to  "think 
it  over."  There  is  some  danger  of  selling  to  cer- 
tain merchants  greater  quantities  than  they  can  read- 
ily dispose  of,  and  the  salesman  should  scrupulously 
avoid  this.  There  are  more  merchants,  however,  who 
do  not  see  or  take  advantage  of  their  merchandising 
opportunities  and  who  greatly  under-buy.  Because 
the  salesman's  time  is  valuable,  and  because  the  pros- 
pect will  never  see  the  advantages  of  the  proposition 
more  clearly  than  when  the  whole  thing  is  fresh  in  his 
mind  and  the  salesman  is  with  him,  the  man  who  has 
been  convinced  must  be  forced  to  act — and  to  act  at 
once. 

Except  in  extremely  rare  and  isolated  cases,  the 
salesman  need  not  fancy  that  his  closing  tactics,  no 
matter  how  strong  or  clever  they  may  be,  will  land 
an  order  if  his  prospect  is  not  convinced — will  per- 
suade a  man  to  sign  who  has  not  been  carried  thru  the 
other  stages,  including  desire.  The  real  point  is  that 
many  who  have  been  carried  thru  these  previous 
stages  slip  away  before  the  end.  They  desire  to 
"think  it  over."  Even  the  strongest  salesmen  do  not 
close  every  sale  when  thej^  have  brought  the  prospect 
to  the  point  of  desire.     A  prospect  carried  thus  far, 


THE  AGREEMENT  93 

however,  is  a  distinct  asset  and  the  salesman  should 
make  every  effort  to  close  him. 

17.  Courage  and  positive  suggestion. — Courage  is 
one  of  the  big  requisites  at  the  close.  The  new  sales- 
man, fearing  what  the  j)rospect  may  think  of  him, 
comes  to  an  awkward  pause  after  he  has  stated  prices 
and  terms.  He  knows  that  the  next  thing  he  ought 
to  do  is  to  assume  that  the  prospect  is  going  to  buy 
and  to  use  the  mechanics  of  the  close,  but  he  lacks  the 
nerve  to  do  it.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  could  well 
dismiss  all  fear  as  to  what  the  prospect  is  thinking  of 
him,  for  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten — and  this  is  especially 
true  if  he  has  dominated  the  interview — the  prosj^ect 
is  too  busy  wondering  what  the  salesman  thinks  of 
him  to  think  anything  himself  about  the  salesman. 
After  a  time,  however,  a  salesman's  closing  tactics 
become  natural  and  even  instinctive  to  hmi,  and  the . 
salesman  goes  thru  the  mechanics  of  the  close  so  often 
that  courage  is  thus  ingrained  in  his  nature. 

The  successful  salesman  assumes  quite  naturally 
that  the  prospect  is  going  to  buy.  He  has  kept  him 
interested  all  thru  the  talk;  the  prospect  has  agreed 
with  him  during  the  various  stages  of  the  presentation 
that  each  part  of  his  proposition  is  good ;  the  prospect 
has  acquiesced  in  the  advantages  of  the  proposition. 
Why  not  expect  him  to  do  the  logical  thing — buy? 
And,  sincerely  expecting  him  to  buy,  why  not  write 
out  the  order,  or  go  after  his  decision  in  some  other 
way?  The  salesman  has  worked  the  prospect 
adroitlv.  tho  with  absolute  fairness,  into  a  position 

VI— 8 


94.  SALESMANSHIP 

where  it  is  harder  to  check  the  salesman  than  to  go  on 
and  complete  the  sale.  To  buy  is  logical;  not  to  do 
so,  illogical. 

18.  "Decision  on  a  minor  point"  principle. — We 
said  that  even  at  this  point  we  are  still  testing  to  find 
whether  this  desire  has  really  been  created.  Be- 
cause of  his  doubt  on  this  score,  the  salesman  cannot 
risk  a  ^^ointblank  question,  Do  you  want  the  goods? 
That  might  bring  an  equally  pointblank  reply,  No, 
and  close  the  interview.  The  salesman  plays  either 
for  a  favorable  decision  or  for  an  opportunity  to  dis- 
cover any  inhibiting  thought  that  may  exist  and  use 
his  reserve  talk  to  overcome  it.  He  works,  therefore, 
for  a  decision,  not  on  the  main  isgue,  but  on  some 
minor  point. 

When  the  retail  salesman  has  centered  the  atten- 
tion of  the  prospect  on  one  particular  suit  of  clothes 
and  feels  that  desire  has  been  created,  he  suggests 
the  possibility  of  making  certain  slight  alterations 
and,  if  there  is  no  objection  voiced,  he  calls  the  fitter. 
Very  often,  he  calls  the  fitter  merely  to  find  out 
whether  or  not  any  alteration  will  be  necessary, 
merely  as  a  subterfuge  to  take  advantage  of  this 
"minor  point"  principle. 

The  staple  salesman  makes  a  tentative  suggestion 
as  to  an  assortment  or  asks  the  prospect  how  he  would 
prefer  to  have  the  goods  shipped,  and  immediately  fol- 
lows up  that  question  with  a  positive  suggestion  as  to 
a  good  way  to  ship  them.  If  the  prospect  voices  ap- 
proval of  his  suggestion,  it  will  be  seen  that  his  de- 


THE  AGREEMENT  95 

cision  on  the  main  issue  has  virtually  been  clinched  by 
asking  his  decision  on  a  minor  point.  Of  course,  he 
may  remark  that  he  hasn't  said  that  he  wanted  the 
proposition  yet,  but  in  that  case  the  salesman  can  ex- 
press surprise,  beg  his  pardon,  ask  him  why  and  strive 
again  to  arouse  desire,  by  means  of  his  reserve  talk. 

The  vacuum  cleaner  man  mentioned  previously, 
immediately  after  making  the  statement  quoted,  drew 
out  his  regular  order  blank  and  said:  "The  cost  of 
this  machine  is  $84).  I  presume  that  you  would  pre- 
fer to  give  me  your  check  for  the  whole  amount  and 
have  it  over  with."  "How  else  can  I  pay  for  it?" 
asked  the  prospect  and  the  decision  had  been  secured! 
Signing  the  order  blank  and  arranging  for  delivery 
became  mere  matters  of  detail. 

19.  "Writing  out  the  order"  close. — Probably  the 
best  closing  maneuver,  because  it  is  the  most  positive 
in  its  suggestion,  is  actually  writing  out  the  order 
blank.  Let  us  go  back  once  more  to  the  exclusive- 
agency  man.  He  closes  with:  "Now,  to  start  in  on 
this  proposition,  you'll  only  need" — and  begins  to 
write  down  on  his  order  form  what  the  dealer  will 
need,  discoursing  on  the  virtues  of  the  goods  as  he 
writes.  The  dry  goods  salesman  begins  writing  a 
tentative  order,  including  the  numbers  which  have 
particularly  interested  the  buyer,  with  quantities 
which  the  salesman  thinks  the  buyer  could  use.  For 
some  reason,  it  is  very  difficult  for  the  average  man  to 
interrupt  the  salesman  while  he  is  writing.  There 
seems,  too,  to  be  a  certain  fascination  about  the  pro- 


96  SALESMANSHIP 

ceding  that  keeps  the  prospect's  mind  following  the 
pencil  and  clinches  his  decision  to  buy. 

Specialty  men  are  iisualy  adept  at  this  "writing 
the  order"  form  of  closing  the  sale.  A  very  success- 
ful insurance  man,  when  he  thinks  the  j)sychological 
moment  has  arrived,  spreads  his  application  on  the 
prosjiect's  desk,  leans  over,  takes  the  prospect's  pen, 
dips  it  in  the  prospect's  ink  and  quickly  writes  in  on 
the  form  of  application  the  form  of  policy  that  the 
prospect  is  going  to  take.  Then,  "Now,  sir,  what  are 
your  initials?"  Few  men  will  refuse  to  give  their 
initials — it  is  so  hard  to  do  so  without  appearing  dis- 
courteous. "Let's  see,  you're  treasurer  here,  are  you 
not?"  and  then,  without  waiting  for  an  answer,  "Yes, 
treasurer,"  and  down  goes  the  word  treasurer  and  the 
name  of  the  company,  "Now,  where  shall  I  send  the 
doctor  to  examine  you?  Here  or  to  your  residence?" 
and  without  waiting  for  a  reply,  "I  should  suggest 
right  here.  It  will  take  only  a  few  minutes — say  to- 
morrow at  two?"  And  down  goes  the  memorandum 
of  the  hour  of  the  appointment.  "Now,  sir,  you  can 
make  your  check  for  the  premium  payable  to  the  com- 
pany and  I  will  pin  it  right  to  this  application.  I'll 
give  you  a  copy  of  this  application,  by  the  way." 
And  he  proceeds  to  fill  out  a  duplicate  application,  to 
be  signed  by  the  applicant,  as  the  prospect  reaches  for 
his  check  book. 

The  strong  points  about  this  close  are,  that  the 
salesman  takes  it  for  granted  that  the  prospect  is 
going  to  apply  for  insurance;  he  secures  the  active 


THE  AGREEMENT  97 

cooperation  of  the  prospect  in  filling  out  the  appU- 
cation ;  he  does  not  ask  the  prospect  to  do  any  writing 
until  the  decision  has  been  made — by  the  salesman, 
you  will  notice — and  then  the  first  thing  he  has  to  write 
is  his  check;  answers  to  the  questions  which  might 
cause  deliberation  or  hesitation  on  the  part  of  the  jDros- 
pect  are  not  waited  for — decisions  are  made  for  him 
by  the  salesman.  Probably  the  most  important  thing 
to  be  noticed  about  the  method  is  the  assurance  and 
poise  that  it  takes  to  use  it. 

20.  Turning  points  of  decision. — A  slight  differ- 
ence in  a  salesman's  tactics  at  this  point  in  the  sale 
is  likely  to  make  a  large  difference  in  the  effect  of  his 
entire  talk.  A  well-known  sales  manager  who  was 
coaching  a  new  salesman  in  field  work  found  it  neces- 
sary to  write  a  special  clause  into  one  particular  con- 
tract in  order  to  remove  an  objection  on  the  part  of  a 
prospect.  He  wrote  the  clause  into  the  contract, 
read  it  over  carefully  to  the  prospect  and  said:  "I 
guess  that  fixes  you  all  right  on  that  point,  doesn't  it?" 
The  prospect  answered  promptly  enough,  and  enthu- 
siastically enough,  too,  "Yes,  I  think  it  does."  The 
sales  manager  thereupon  handed  the  prospect  his 
fountain  pen  and  said,  "Just  sign  your  name  on  this 
line,  please."  The  prospect  took  the  pen,  held  it 
above  the  contract  for  a  moment — and  then  put  it 
down.  Nothing  that  the  manager  had  in  his  reserve 
talk  could  get  him  to  take  it  up  again.  The  psycho- 
logical moment  had  passed.  When  the  two  got  out- 
side, the  sales  manager  turned  to  the  beginner  and 


98  SALESMANSHIP 

said:  "Now,  how  do  you  suppose  I  lost  that  sale?" 
"If  you  will  allow  a  suggestion,"  said  the  new  sales- 
man, "I  should  say  that  if  after  you  had  secured 
his  agreement  to  the  special  clause,  instead  of  giving 
him  the  pen  and  telling  him  where  to  sign,  you  had 
drawn  the  contract  to  you  and  asked,  'Now,  how  shall 
we  route  the  shipment,  Mr.  Prospect?'  I  think  he 
w^ould  have  come  thru."  The  sales  manager  who  told 
this  stoiy  said  that  the  new  salesman  was  undoubtedly 
right. 

21.  Mechanical  schejnes. — There  are  a  number  of 
mechanical  tricks  which  can  be  worked  out  as  aids  in 
closing  and  which  frequently  prove  quite  effective. 
There  is  a  very  successful  salesman  in  the  South  who 
carries  an  enormous  fountain  pen  that  somewhat  re- 
sembles a  war  club.  Any  writing  that  a  salesman 
does  is  a  positive  suggestion  to  the  prospect  and  cre- 
ates a  desire,  faint  tho  it  may  be,  on  the  part  of  the 
prospect  to  write  also.  This  salesman  claims,  how- 
ever, that  the  desire  to  try  out  that  unusual  looking 
pen  is  well-nigh  irresistible.  He  has  no  trouble  in 
getting  the  prospect  to  take  it  in  his  hand  and  try  it 
out — on  the  dotted  line.  It  is  hard  to  say  how  gen- 
erally true  this  may  be ;  in  this  particular  case  there  is 
not  the  least  doubt  that  the  salesman  would  get  big 
results  without  any  pen  at  all. 

A  story  is  told  of  a  certain  salesman  who  sold  a 
specialty  to  retailers.  He  would  stand  at  one  of  the 
old-style  slanting  desks,  and  after  he  had  told  his 
prospect  where  to  sign  would  toss  his  pencil  carelessly 


THE  AGREEMENT  99 

upon  the  desk.  Immediately  it  would  begin  to  roll 
down  to  the  floor,  but  he  would  make  not  the  least 
effort  to  stop  it.  What  more  natural  than  that  the 
prospect  himself  should  stop  it?  And  lo!  there  he 
was  with  the  pencil  in  his  hand  and  ready  to  sign. 

The  fundamentals  involved  here  might  be  stated 
this  way.  It  is  well  to  produce  whatever  contract  is 
to  be  signed  some  little  time  before  the  signing  will 
actually  take  place,  and  for  some  reason  other  than 
its  actual  signing.  For  example,  toward  the  end  of 
his  selling  talk,  the  salesman  might  say:  "Just  let 
me  sum  up  what  I  have  told  you"  (producing  his  con- 
tent form).  "This  contains  all  the  essentials."  And 
then,  x^roducing  his  pencil  or  pen,  he  may  check  or 
ring  the  important  features  as  he  summarizes  them 
briefly.  This  naturally  w^ould  bring  him  down  to  the 
statement  of  prices  and  terms,  gives  him  a  natural 
opportunity  to  endeavor  to  get  the  prospect's  decision 
on  the  latter,  brings  the  contract  naturally  into  an 
easy  position  for  signing  and  possibly  makes  very 
natural  and  easy  the  handing  to  the  prospect  of  the 
pen  or  pencil  with  which  the  salesman  himself  has 
been  writing  or  checking. 

It  should  be  understood  that  these  are  mere  tricks, 
that  possibly  if  they  were  done  the  least  bit  awk- 
wardly they  would  cheapen  the  salesman  in  the  eye  of 
the  prospect.  JNIost  high-class  salesmen  get  along 
very  well  without  them. 

No  salesman  gets  along  well,  however,  without 
strong  closing  tactics  of  some  sort  and  without  cer- 


100  SALESMANSHIP 

tain  definite  mechanical  moves  for  securing  the  pros- 
pect's immediate  decision.  This  whole  matter  of  the 
close  may  be  summed  up  in  one  basic  principle :  make 
decisions — do  not  merely  expect  them. 

REVIEW 

Discuss  the  anticipating  of  objections,  the  meeting  of  infre- 
quent ones,  discussion  of  competing  goods,  and  tactful  methods 
of  opposing  the  prospect. 

Show  why  "inhibition"  is  a  better  word  than  "objection." 

How  would  you  proceed  if  you  felt  that  an  objection  voiced 
by  a  prospect  did  not  reveal  his  fundamental  reason  for  not 
buying  ? 

Discuss  desire  as  a  development  in  the  sale. 

Can  the  psychological  moment  be  readily  perceived  in  a  ma- 
jority of  interviews? 

What  particular  part  of  the  selling  talk  is  depended  ujDon 
to  develop  interest  into  desire.''  Illustrate.  What  would  be  the 
desire-creating  talk  for  your  goods.'' 

Discuss  the  close  and  closing  tactics.  Why  is  courage  an 
important  factor  here? 

Indicate  what  is  meant  by^  "make  decisions;  don't  expect 
them." 

Indicate  how  positive  suggestion  is  used  at  this  point. 

How  many  "minor  jioints"  can  be  taken  advantage  of  to 
clinch  the  decision  in  the  case  of  your  goods?  What  mechanics 
might  be  devised? 


CHAPTER  VI 

SELLING  PROCESS— MISCELLANEOUS 

1.  Concurrence  of  buyer  and  seller. — Thruout  this 
discussion  of  the  selhng  process  we  have  kept  two 
things  constantly  in  mind:  the  words  and  actions  of 
the  salesman,  and  the  reaction  of  the  buyer  to  these 


Desire 


Attention 


Approach  and 
Introductory  Remarks 


Close 


words  and  actions.  Let  us  endeavor  to  chart  these 
two  phases  of  the  selling  process  and  show  their  con- 
currence. 

The  upper  half  of  the  accompanying  diagi'am  rep- 

101 


102  SALESMANSHIP 

resents  the  buyer;  the  lower  half  the  salesman.  The 
salesman's  approach  and  introductory  remarks  secure 
the  prospect's  attention.  As  he  proceeds  with  his 
presentation  and  demonstration,  attention  changes  to 
ever-increasing  interest.  The  good  salesman  will  have 
approached  his  subject  from  the  prospect's  stand- 
point right  from  the  start.  He  will  make  use  of  this 
"you"  attitude  more  strongly  than  ever,  however,  at 
the  end  of  his  presentation  and  demonstration.  In- 
terest will  thereby  be  ripened  into  desire.  Confidence, 
starting  very  early  in  the  interview,  increases  during 
its  progress  until,  at  the  point  of  desire,  it  entirely 
bridges  the  gap  between  the  buyer's  and  the  seller's 
mind  and  blends  them  harmoniouslj''.  From  this 
point  the  salesman  drives  sharply — albeit  fairly — for 
the  close,  and  the  minds  of  buyer  and  seller  meet  at 
the  point  of  completed  sale. 

2.  Persistence  of  the  right  hind. — Too  many  sales- 
men lack  the  right  kind  of  persistence.  They  pre- 
sent their  proposition  in  a  more  or  less  stereotyped 
fashion  and,  because  the  prospect  does  not  respond 
immediately  with  his  signature,  become  discouraged 
and  leave  him,  when  a  little  more  endeavor,  a  little 
more  judicious  "working"  would  have  secured  an  or- 
der and,  in  some  cases,  would  have  created  a  perma- 
nent customer. 

There  are  still  more  salesmen  whose  persistence 
bores  and  tires  their  prospects  without  getting  the 
salesmen  anywhere.  The  trouble  here  is  that  usually 
the  salesman  has  allowed  the  prospect  to  come  to  a 


MISCELLANEOUS  103 

definite,  adverse  decision  and  is  battling  to  change  it. 
The  really  astute  salesman  plans  his  talk  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  prevent  an  outright  adverse  decision. 
He  tests  out  to  discover  v^^hether  or  not  inhibition  has 
been  removed  and  desire  created.  If  he  believes  that 
conditions  are  right  he  then  leads  up  to  the  close.  If 
at  this  point,  however,  he  finds  some  inhibiting  thought 
still  in  the  prospect's  mind,  he  once  more  strives  to 
create  desire.  In  other  words,  he  finds  that  the  psy- 
chological moment  has  not  quite  arrived.  When  he 
again  thinks  that  the  prospect  is  ready,  he  leads  back 
to  the  close  on  a  new  tack.  And  unless  he  sees  quite 
clearly  that  f  mother  persistence  at  that  particular  time 
would  not  result  in  an  order  and  might  even  destroy 
all  chance  of  securing  one  in  the  future,  he  continues 
to  maneuver  until  his  efforts  are  crowned  with  success 
or  his  reserve  talk  is  exhausted.  That  is  persistence 
of  the  right  kind. 

We  may  judge  from  this  discussion  that  the  sales- 
man should  have  such  a  fund  of  reserve  selling  talk 
and  extra  selling  points  as  to  make  it  possible  for  him 
to  assemble  two  or  three  different  complete  presenta- 
tions of  his  proposition ;  and  that  he  should  be  master 
of  as  many  different  methods  of  closing  a  sale  as  his 
ingenuity,  combined  with  the  experience  of  his  asso- 
ciates on  the  same  proposition,  can  devise. 

3.  ///  humor  unsportsmanlike. — Above  all,  any  dis- 
play of  peevishness  or  temper  at  the  close  on  the  part 
of  the  salesman  is  unpardonable.  The  prospect  is 
a  reasonable  being,  presumablj^  possessed  of  sound 


104  SALESMANSHIP 

judgment.  He  must  be  credited  with  the  abilitj'^  to 
decide  for  himself  and  with  a  clear  knowledge  of 
just  what  he  wants.  To  tell  him  that  his  judgment  is 
extremely  bad  may  ease  the  disappointed  salesman's 
mind,  but  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  the  prospect 
will  agree  with  any  such  criticism. 

Furthermore,  selling  is  a  clean,  fascinating  game, 
in  which  the  minds  of  salesman  and  prospect,  respec- 
tively, move  and  countermove  for  supremacy.  Any 
display  of  ill  humor  is  just  as  unsportsmanlike  as  it 
would  be  in  tennis  or  baseball  or  polo.  The  salesman 
should  always  bear  in  mind  that  the  prospect's  source 
of  information  about  the  proposition  is  the  salesman 
himself.  If  he  remains  cold  or  lukewarm,  therefore, 
the  salesman  should  take  the  blame  to  himself  and  en- 
deavor to  change  the  attitude. 

One  of  the  basic  principles  involved  was  expressed 
recently  by  a  salesman  for  a  printing  house.  He  had 
put  up  a  long,  earnest  and  masterly  talk  to  secure  a 
large  contract  for  his  concern  and  had  been  turned 
down  only  because  the  prospect  thought  that  another 
house  with  larger  equipment  would  make  quicker  de- 
liveries. It  was  difficult,  of  course,  for  the  salesman 
to  accept  defeat  smilingly,  especially  after  having  lost 
by  such  a  small  margin.  But,  after  recognizing  that 
his  cause  was  lost  and  before  preparing  to  leave,  he 
sought  to  relieve  the  tension  of  the  interview  bj^  ex- 
changing with  the  prospect  a  few  short  remarks  not 
especially  relevant  to  the  subject  that  they  had  been 
discussing.     He  lapsed  quickly  into  a  story  that  illus- 


MISCELLANEOUS  105 

tratecl  a  point ;  the  prospect  responded  with  one  which 
illustrated  another;  and  when  both  were  laughing 
heartily,  the  salesman  prepared  to  take  his  leave.  The 
buyer  looked  at  him  admiringly.  "You  are  fairly 
cheerful,  considering  that  you  have  just  lost  a  sizable 
contract."  "Mr.  Prospect,"  returned  the  salesman, 
smiling,  but  in  earnest,  "if  I  should  ever  start  to 
leave  your  office  without  a  real  smile  on  my  face,  call 
me  back  and  give  me  the  opportunity  to  leave  in  the 
right  way." 

4.  After  the  sale. — Very  often  after  the  sale  has 
been  made,  the  order  has  been  signed  and  the  sales- 
man has  gone,  a  reaction  occurs  in  the  buyer's  mind. 
In  the  very  nature  of  things,  he  bought  at  the  high- 
est point  of  enthusiasm.  With  that  first  enthusiasm 
dying  down  and  the  domination  of  the  salesman  re- 
moved, the  old  objections  may  arise  and  confront  him 
once  more.  The  replies  that  the  salesman  made  to 
these  objections  have  lost  some  of  their  force.  In 
short,  the  prospect  begins  to  doubt  the  wisdom  of  his 
purchase.  He  needs  strong  reassurance  or  there  will 
be  danger  of  a  cancelation.  If  one  of  his  big  objec- 
tions to  buying  was  that  he  was  overstocked  on  the 
particular  line  of  goods  offered,  the  salesman,  after 
the  order  is  taken,  should  recapitulate  to  him  the  plans 
proposed  for  moving  the  goods.  If  an  exclusive 
agency  has  been  taken  or  if  a  piece  of  real  estate  has 
been  bought,  the  salesman  will  do  well  to  remind  the 
prospect  that  another  person  was  after  it  and  stood 
ready  to  sign  if  an  opportunity  offered;  such  a  re- 


106  SALESMANSHIP 

minder  will  do  much  to  reassure  the  wavering  pur- 
chaser. If  there  is  literature  that  describes  the  propo- 
sition, the  salesman  should  leave  it  with  the  buyer. 
Once  the  buyer  has  undergone  this  reaction  and 
emerged  from  it  reassured,  there  is  very  little  proba- 
bility of  a  subsequent  change  in  his  attitude. 

5.  Furnishing  helpful  details. — Furthermore,  there 
is  a  great  deal  of  detailed  information  which  the  buyer 
should  have  about  his  purchase  but  which  would  seri- 
ously confuse  the  presentation.  The  time  to  go  into 
these  matters  is  after  the  order  has  been  closed;  they 
should  then  be  fully  treated.  Of  course,  when  an 
article  is  to  be  resold,  a  great  deal  of  explanation  will 
be  needed.  The  dealer  must  know  why  he  bought,  so 
that  he  may  know  how  to  sell.  Most  of  this  explana- 
tion can  be  saved  to  advantage  until  the  sale  is  con- 
cluded. It  may  seem  to  the  man  who  has  never  sold 
that  no  intelligent  person  will  buy  before  he  knows 
all  about  the  purchase.  The  fact  remains,  however, 
that  practical  men  of  business  do  so.  Very  often  their 
buying  is  based  on  nothing  more  than  a  general  out- 
line of  the  proposition  offered,  coupled  with  confi- 
dence in  the  salesman. 

At  the  close  of  the  sale  is  the  point,  too,  at  which 
the  salesman,  especially  if  he  deals  in  a  specialty  line, 
gets  that  valuable  cooperation  which  leads  him  to  the 
buyer's  friends,  who  are  the  best  possible  prospects 
for  him.  And  this  is  the  point  at  which  the  retail 
salesman  adroitly  draws  the  buyer's  attention  to  other 
things  and  effects  further  sales. 


MISCELLANEOUS  107 

6.  The  right  impression  at  leaving. — The  salesman 
should  always  leave  the  buyer  with  the  assurance  that 
he,  personally,  will  give  the  order  attention  as  far  as 
possible,  and  that  he  will  di'op  in  to  see  whether  the 
goods  have  come  promptly  and  in  good  condition. 
In  short,  to  leave  a  right  impression  is  quite  as  im- 
portant as  to  gain  an  audience. 

Whether  or  not  a  sale  has  been  made,  the  matter  of 
making  a  dignified  exit  is  important — and  also  diffi- 
cult. The  salesman's  methods  of  handling  his  sam- 
ples or  his  equipment  should  be  such  that  within  a 
very  short  space  of  time  after  the  interview  has  termi- 
nated, everything  will  be  packed  up  and  he  will  be 
prepared  to  leave.  The  man  who  has  turned  the 
salesman  down  and  is  anxious  to  get  at  other  things, 
but  who  is  too  courteous  to  do  so  until  the  salesman 
has  taken  his  leave,  is  disconcerting  as  he  sits  with  his 
hands  on  the  arms  of  his  chair  watching  the  salesman 
fumble  for  different  pieces  of  his  equipment.  The 
embarrassment  is  likely  to  be  almost  as  great  where  a 
sale  has  been  made.  The  salesman,  therefore,  should 
have  a  definite  system  that  will  enable  him  to  get  away 
the  moment  he  terminates  the  interview. 

This  brings  up  another  point.  A  very  successful 
business  man  said  recently  that  he  has  made  it  a  rule 
of  his  life  always  to  be  the  one  who  terminates  the 
interview;  to  be  the  first  to  rise  when  negotiations  are 
concluded  or  an  interview  has  accomplished  its  pur- 
pose ;  and  invariably  to  dismiss  the  other  fellow  before 
the  other  fellow  dismisses  him.     If  the  salesman  ap- 


108  SALESMANSHIP 

plies  this  principle  in  his  work  he  will  have  done  much 
to  make  his  exit  a  dignified  one. 

When  a  salesman  thanks  a  prospect — after  a  sale 
has  been  accomplished — while  he  should  do  so  in  such 
a  way  as  to  leave  no  doubt  that  the  order  is  appre- 
ciated, he  should,  at  the  same  time  distinctly  give  the 
impression  that  a  mutal  benefit  is  involved.  "Thank 
you — and  you  will  thank  me,"  tho  extremely  hack- 
nej^ed,  expresses  the  principle.  Some  such  formula 
as  this  might  be  used:  "I  want  to  thank  you,  Mr. 
Prospect ;  I  am  glad  to  have  this  order,  and  when  the 
goods  arrive  I  am  sure  you  will  like  them,  even  better 
than  you  think  now." 

7.  The  "hi  I  starter/' — A  big  wholesale  dry  goods 
salesman  said  recently:  "Wlienever  I  have  a  buyer  in 
my  sample  room  out  on  the  road,  I  lead  him  immedi- 
ately to  the  article  for  which  he  asks,  or  which  I  know 
he  needs.  That  starts  the  bill.  It  seems  an  easy 
matter  to  get  other  items  on  the  order  once  the  ice  is 
broken. 

"When  a  man  comes  into  the  house  and  asks  for  a 
particular  article,  however,  I  show  him  that  article 
last.  I  lead  him  to  the  article  for  which  he  has  asked 
in  a  roundabout  way,  stopping  casually  to  show  him 
things  and  quoting  prices  as  we  go  along.  Manj'^ 
times,  I  have  a  half-dozen  items  on  the  bill  before  we 
have  arrived  at  the  particular  thing  that  he  asked  for 
when  he  came  in.  The  idea  here  is,  that  if  he  were  led 
immediately  to  the  item  he  came  in  to  buy,  he  would 
buy  it  and,  deciding  that  his  errand  had  been  accom- 


MISCELLANEOUS  109 

plished,  would  leave  without  looking  at  other  things 
in  stock." 

In  discussing  the  subject  of  attention,  we  said  that 
the  man  handling  a  varied  line  should  make  his 
approach  on  one  particular  commodity.  He  should 
stick  to  that  particular  commodity  until  he  has  either 
sold  the  prospect  or  discovered  that  the  latter  abso- 
lutely will  not  buy.  In  other  words,  the  making  of  a 
sale  right  at  the  start  will  make  the  adding  of  items  to 
the  order  easier  and  more  rapid  than  under  any  other 
conditions. 

8.  A  pitfall  to  he  avoided — For  the  benefit  of 
salesmen  who  still  have  their  first  trips  to  make,  a  prac- 
tice not  uncommon  with  more  or  less  unscrupulous 
buyers  might  be  illustrated  here.  A  buyer  of  woolens 
for  "cutting  up"  was  looking  over  the  line  of  a  young 
salesman  on  his  first  selling  trip.  As  he  went  thru 
the  line,  he  set  aside  a  number  of  samples  with  some 
commendatory  remark  that  would  seem  to  indicate 
that  they  impressed  him  favorably  enough  to  prompt 
his  buying.  The  young  salesman  naturally  had 
visions  of  quite  a  large  and  satisfactory  order. 

When  he  had  seen  all  the  samples,  the  buyer  se- 
lected a  staple  serge  that  is  sold  by  all  woolen  houses 
on  an  extremely  small  margin  of  profit  and  at  a  prac- 
tically uniform  price.  "What  is  your  price  on  this?" 
he  asked.  AVhen  the  salesman  had  given  him  a  quo- 
tation, the  buyer  threw  up  his  hands,  expressed  sur- 
prise at  the  high  price  asked  by  the  salesman's  firm 
and  stated  that  the  salesman  of  a  rival  concern  had 

VI— 9 


110  SALESMANSHIP 

offered  liim  the  same  thing  at  a  considerably  lower 
price.  The  young  salesman,  not  to  be  outdone  by  an 
older  rival  in  his  territory,  replied  that  if  the  other 
concern  could  afford  to  sell  the  goods  at  that  price,  his 
could,  too.  "All  right,"  replied  the  buyer,  "you  may 
send  me  some  at  that  figure,"  and  he  proceeded  to 
order  quite  a  large  quantity. 

The  salesman,  looking  upon  this  particular  item  as 
a  mere  "bill  starter,"  held  his  pencil  poised  above  his 
order  blank,  while  he  suggested  that  the  buyer  select 
from  the  other  samples  set  aside  those  from  which  he 
wished  to  order.  "Oh,  no,"  the  buyer  replied  to  this 
suggestion,  "they  are  all  fine,  and  your  prices  are 
about  right  on  them,  too,  but  I  am  pretty  well  stocked 
on  all  of  the  numbers  represented.  That  serge  is 
about  the  only  thing  I  want  to  order  today."  All 
hope  for  the  large  and  varied  order  vanished  from 
the  salesman's  mind  and  in  its  place  came  the  sickening 
realization  that  he  had  taken  an  order  at  a  price  that 
represented  a  heavy  loss  to  his  firm.  He  rightfully 
felt  that  he  had  been  tricked. 

This  practice  is  indulged  in,  with  variations,  by 
buyers  in  many  lines.  In  the  case  described,  the  sales- 
man, after  having  spent  a  sleepless  night,  did  the 
sensible  thing.  He  went  back  to  the  buyer,  explained 
that  when  he  quoted  the  price,  he  knew  he  was  taking 
a  loss  on  the  serge  and  did  it  only  because  he  believed 
the  buj^er  was  going  to  place  a  large  order  in  the  other 
numbers  picked  out,  in  which  case  the  profit  on  the 
other  lines  would  have  wiped  out  the  loss  on  the  serge. 


MISCELLANEOUS  111 

Therefore,  he  explained,  since  the  rest  of  the  order 
had  not  been  forthcoming,  he  did  not  feel  justified  in 
accepting  the  order  given. 

9.  Getting  the  price. — This  brings  us  to  the  ques- 
tion of  getting  the  price  that  shows  a  profit.  In  manj' 
lines  the  salesman  is  given  wide  discretion  in  the  mak- 
ing of  prices.  In  the  selling  of  special  machinery,  for 
example,  it  is  impossible  to  provide  the  salesman  with 
fixed  prices.  He  is  sometimes  obliged  to  make  his 
estimate  and  quote  a  price  in  the  first  interview.  A 
great  many  wholesale  dry  goods  and  grocery  salesmen 
are  allowed  to  quote  reduced  prices,  tho  this  prac- 
tice is  becoming  less  common.  Some  salesmen  are 
price-getters;  they  have  no  trouble  in  winning  over 
lower-priced  competition.  Howell  von  Blarcom,  dis- 
trict sales  manager  of  the  Westinghouse  Machine 
Company,  tells  an  amusing  story  of  a  salesman  of  his 
who  always  managed  to  get  top  price,  and  who  one 
day  added  twenty-five  dollars  to  the  maximum  price 
on  a  small  machine  order  because  the  purchaser  had 
kept  him  waiting.  Other  salesman  are  confirmed 
price-cutters.  They  boast  that  they  can  sell  goods  if 
the  price  is  right.  They  are  easily  browbeaten  into 
believing  that  their  competitors  are  quoting  prices 
lower  than  theirs.  Trust  them  with  the  cost  figures 
of  their  goods  and  they  will  sell  on  a  margin  too 
narrow  to  pay  their  traveling  expenses. 

The  salesman  should  always  remember  that  mer- 
chandise that  is  worth  anything  always  costs  some- 
thing to  produce.     It  is  only  fair  to  assume  that  the 


112  SALESMANSHIP 

house  he  is  working  for  is  producing  economically  and 
getting  a  fair  margin  of  profit.  If  he  meets  with  the 
statement  that  his  competitors  are  quoting  lower 
prices  for  the  same  goods,  he  should  have  the  mora] 
courage  to  assert  that  the  goods  could  not  be  the  same 
at  a  price  lower  than  the  one  he  quotes.  Nine  times 
out  of  ten,  this  lower  price  is  one  of  the  little  fictions  of 
the  purchasing  agent. 

10.  Emphasize  service  and  quality. — More  and 
more,  service  and  quality  are  overshadowing  price. 
The  salesman  who  can  talk  service  and  quality  con- 
vincingly when  lower  prices  are  mentioned  will  cause 
those  lower  prices  to  be  forgotten.  Some  time  ago 
a  large  printing  order  was  to  be  given  out  by  a  firm  in 
New  York.  A  number  of  dummies  were  made  up 
and  sent  to  different  printers  for  their  estimates.  A 
salesman  from  one  of  the  printing  houses  came  in  to 
get  a  dummy.  When  he  received  his  copy  he  turned 
to  the  man  who  was  to  place  the  order: 

"Mr.  Buyer,  if  you  are  going  to  award  this  job  to  the 
lowest  bidder,  I'm  beaten  now  and  I  won't  start.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  however,  it  is  not  a  low  price  that  you're  after. 
You  think  too  much  of  quality  for  that.  What  you  really 
want  is  a  combination  of  high  quality  and  reasonable  price; 
and  if  you  place  this  job  on  that  basis  I  am  going  to  win. 

"The  biggest  variable  in  printing  is  'make-ready,'  the 
adjustment  of  the  plates  in  the  press  so  that  they  will  print 
evenly.  The  printers  who  submit  the  lowest  bids  to  you  will 
slap  the  plates  into  the  press  and  make  the  run  without  any 
'make-ready.'  Those  who  bid  slighth'  higher  may  fuss 
around  for  an  hour  or  two  making  ready  and  then,  hit  or 
miss,  will  make  the  run  anyhow.      ]\Iy  company  will  keep  a 


MISCELLANEOUS  113 

press  standing  idle  a  day  if  necessary  in  order  to  get  the 
'make-ready'  perfect.  We  won't  start  to  run  until  we  are 
assured  of  turning  out  a  quality  job. 

"Now,  Mr.  Buyer,  we  are  the  lowest  priced  quality  print- 
ers in  New  York.  If  you  want  the  lowest  price  compatible 
with  the  highest  quality  and  will  award  this  job  on  that 
basis,  I  am  going  to  get  your  business." 

When  bids  began  to  come,  the  differences  in  amount 
were  startling.  But  the  salesman's  talk  had  made 
such  an  impression  that  this  man's  house,  tho  its  bid 
was  much  nearer  the  top  than  the  bottom,  was 
awarded  the  job.  There  is  probably  no  trade  in 
which  the  price  competition  is  more  severe  than  in 
printing.  Despite  that,  this  salesman  by  a  sincere  con- 
vincing "quality"  talk  was  able  to  make  price  assume 
an  importance  secondary  in  the  mind  of  his  prospect. 

The  matter  of  special  discounts,  approaching  ad- 
vances in  price,  possible  restriction  of  supply  and  like 
inducements  may  also  be  mentioned  by  the  salesman. 
If  he  can  truthfully  advance  any  such  arguments  as 
a  reason  for  the  prospect's  signing  up  at  once,  he  will 
find  them  to  be  of  material  aid  in  closing.  They  are 
not,  however,  necessary  to  the  work  of  a  good  sales- 
man. 

11.  ''Think  it  over." — The  only  sales  that  pay  are 
the  sales  that  are  closed.  The  salesman  is  paid  for 
the  orders  he  secures  and  not  for  the  prospects  that 
he  has  lined  up.  The  "think  it  over"  and  the  "call 
back  again"  are  not,  therefore,  particularly  encour- 
aging things  for  the  salesman  to  hear  at  the  close  of 
an  interview. 


114  SALESMANSHIP 

The  prospects  who  give  these  answers  fall  into  two 
classes :  those  who  are  naturally  conservative  and  de- 
liberate, who  never  make  a  decision  without  sleeping 
on  it,  who  want  to  make  further  investigations — in 
short,  those  who  sincerely  intend  to  think  it  over ;  and 
those  suave  individuals  who  merely  take  this  polite 
method  of  turning  the  salesman  down.  The  salesman 
must  learn  to  distinguish  carefully  between  these  two 
classes,  or  those  in  the  latter  class  will  keep  him 
running  around  in  a  circle  chasing  will-o'-the-wisps, 
and  so  prevent  him  from  seeing  a  sufficient  number  of 
new  people. 

"Think  it  over,"  unless  the  nature  of  a  salesman's 
proposition  is  such  that  a  sale  on  first  interview  is 
impossible,  is  born  of  a  presentation  that  lacks  enthu- 
siasm, that  is  void  of  a  strong  appeal  to  the  imagina- 
tion, that  does  not  take  the  "you"  attitude,  or  that 
comes  to  a  chill,  dead  stop  at  the  close  when  all  the 
salesman's  strength  should  be  in  action. 

No  matter  what  the  line,  any  number  of  arguments 
can  be  marshalled  against  the  "think  it  over"  attitude, 
and  the  best  of  salesmen  occasionally  allow  the  inter- 
view to  get  to  the  point  where  they  have  to  use  these 
arguments  to  combat  that  point  of  view. 

More  often  the  salesman  forestalls  this  inclination 
of  the  prospect  to  postpone  decision.  There  is,  after 
all,  a  very 'Slight  difference  between  the  sincere  "think 
it  over"  and  the  signed  order.  Just  a  little  new  en- 
thusiasm, a  little  more  snap  in  the  presentation,  a  few 
terse  stories  to  illustrate  points,  a  little  more  of  the 


MISCELLANEOUS  115 

"you"  attitude  and  a  slightly  stronger  close  will  work 
wonders  for  the  salesman  who  is  getting  a  large  pro- 
portion of  delayed  decisions. 

12.  The  "call-hack." — This  brings  us  to  the  "call- 
back." The  man  selling  staples  and  calling  on  his 
regular  trade  is  continually  calling  back.  "Let  that 
go  over  now  and  see  me  on  your  next  trip,"  is  familiar 
to  his  ears.  There  is,  of  course,  no  question  of  the  ad- 
visability of  his  calling  back.  He  will  always  call  on 
people  who  handle  his  line  whether  they  buy  or  not. 
The  specialty  man  is  slightly  different.  He  can  call 
back  or  not,  as  he  thinks  best;  specialty  men  are 
divided  as  to  whether  or  not  it  pays  to  call  back.  One 
of  the  well-known  specialty  salesmen  of  the  country 
says:  "I  seldom  call  back.  The  realization  when  I 
am  talking  to  my  man  that  this  is  absolutely  my  last 
chance  at  him — that  I  won't  call  back — makes  me  try 
my  best  to  close  him  at  that  sitting."  The  salesman 
who  knows  when  he  is  making  his  presentation  that 
he  will  call  back  if  necessary,  is  likely  to  weaken  at  the 
close  and  get  the  "call-back"  habit.  Most  specialty 
men,  however,  while  they  emphasize  the  necessity  of 
endeavoring  to  close  the  sale  on  first  interview,  agree 
that  it  does  pay  to  call  back  in  the  case  of  those 
prospects  who  seem  to  be  sincere. 

The  one  great  principle  to  be  remembered  in  con- 
nection with  calling  back — and  this  applies  to  staple 
lines  as  well  as  specialty  products — is  that  an  entirely 
new  presentation  should  be  given  from  an  entirely 
new  angle.     The  "call-back"  is  to  all  intents  and  pur- 


116  SALESMANSHIP 

poses  a  new  prospect.  The  question:  Well,  what  de- 
cision have  you  come  to  on  my  proposition?  will,  with 
few  exceptions,  elicit  the  answer:  I  have  been  think- 
ing that  matter  over,  and  I  have  come  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  I  won't  go  in  on  that — for  the  present  at 
least.  Perhaps  at  some  future  time — and  so  on. 
The  probability  is  that  he  has  not  given  the  salesman's 
proposition  a  single  moment's  thought  since  the  previ- 
ous call  and  that  he  does  not  want  to  do  so  now.  The 
salesman  should  find  an  entirely  new  presentation  for 
call-back  purposes  and  should  get  his  proposition  be- 
fore the  "call-back"  prospect  from  a  new  standpoint 
before  allowing  him  to  voice  a  decision  at  all. 

13.  Kinds  of  selling  requiring  several  interviews. — 
The  discussion  of  the  disadvantages  of  calling  back 
should  not  be  understood  to  mean  that  a  salesman,  re- 
gardless of  his  proposition,  should  invariably  make  a 
complete  selling  talk  and  try  to  close  the  order  the 
first  time  he  faces  a  prospect.  Most  propositions,  it 
is  true,  have  inherent  in  them  nothing  that  precludes 
the  possibility  of  making  a  sale  at  the  first  interview. 
There  are,  however,  a  great  many  propositions  which, 
owing  to  their  nature  and  the  nature  of  the  conditions 
surrounding  their  sale,  cannot,  except  in  rare  in- 
stances, be  sold  the  first  time  the  salesman  meets  the 
prospect. 

Life  insurance  salesmen,  for  example,  go  out  on 
what  they  call  "cold  canvass."  That  is,  they  select  a 
number  of  individuals  to  call  upon,  go  and  discuss  in- 
surance with  them  in  a  general  way,  and  incidentally 


MISCELLANEOUS  117 

discover  how  many  people  are  dependent  upon  the 
prospect  and  estimate  his  probable  age  and  income. 
It  is  only  after  these  details  have  been  secured  and  the 
situation  has  been  studied,  that  the  life  insurance 
salesman  is  in  the  best  possible  position  to  decide  upon 
the  amount  and  kind  of  insurance  he  will  try  to  sell 
the  prospect.  Of  course,  this  information  can,  if  the 
lead  to  the  prospect  has  been  secured  by  the  coopera- 
tion of  one  of  his  friends,  be  ascertained  before  the 
life  insurance  man's  visit.  If  the  lead  is  obtained 
from  a  more  general  source,  however,  a  visit  is  neces- 
sary to  uncover  the  desired  information. 

Salesmen  selling  special  machinery  and  factory 
equipment  must  often  continue  to  call  upon  their 
prospects  until  they  are  "in  the  market" ;  or  they  must 
call  several  times  and  become  sufficiently  friendly  with 
the  factory  superintendent  to  be  allowed  to  go  thru 
the  plant  and  gauge  its  needs.  INTot  until  they  have 
done  this,  can  they  practise  real  creative  salesmanship 
in  the  way  of  deciding  just  what  equipment  the  plant 
could  use  to  advantage,  and  in  building  a  selling  talk 
for  particular  items  on  that  decision. 

The  salesman  handling  office  filing  devices  or  card 
systems  for  offices  must  generally  delay  his  real  selling 
talk  until  he  has  secured  first-hand  information  as  to 
the  needs  of  a  particular  office.  The  advertising 
solicitor  worthy  of  the  name  does  not  expect  to  walk 
in  off  the  street  and  sell  a  block  of  space  on  his  first 
interview  with  a  prospect.  His  first  call  will  be  made 
to  discuss  the  prospect's  advertising  problem  in  a 


118  SALESMANSHIP 

general  way  and  to  study  his  needs.  Having  clearly 
in  mind  the  information  received,  he  will  make  a 
second  call  to  present  a  definite  plan  that  will  be  ad- 
vantageous to  the  prospect.  The  only  object  his  first 
call  can  accomplish,  so  far  as  the  prospect  is  con- 
cerned, is  to  create  in  the  prospect's  mind  a  certain 
amount  of  confidence  in  the  solicitor. 

It  should  be  noted,  however,  that  the  first  calls  are 
not  in  the  true  sense  selling  interviews.  A  call  back, 
in  the  sense  in  which  the  term  is  used  in  this  Text  can 
be  made  only  after  an  interview  at  which  a  complete 
selling  talk  has  been  made  and  an  effort  to  close  a 
sale  has  resulted  unfavorably.  The  kind  of  selling 
that  requires  several  preliminary  calls  of  the  sort  indi- 
cated differs  only  in  detail  and  not  in  principle  from 
selling  which  is  done  at  the  first  interview.  For  it 
has  been  pointed  out  that  no  salesman,  no  matter 
what  his  line,  should  attempt  to  approach  his  prospect 
without  first  gathering  all  possible  information  con- 
cerning him.  These  preliminary  calls  are  but  a 
method  of  gathering  that  information.  And  in  sell- 
ing that  requires  several  calls,  just  as  in  the  kind  that 
requires  but  one  call,  the  salesman,  once  he  has  gath- 
ered all  the  necessary  information  and  decided  defi- 
nitely upon  the  proposition  he  is  going  to  put  before 
the  prospect,  is  ready  to  close.  When  he  has  delivered 
his  selling  talk  the  time  has  come  when  it  is  possible 
to  secure  the  signature  and  he  should  make  every 
endeavor  to  do  so  at  that  interview.  He  should  avoid 
assiduously  the  necessity  for  a  call  back.     He  has 


MISCELLANEOUS  119 

reached  a  point  where  it  is  possible  for  him  to  realize 
upon  the  time  invested  in  preliminary  work  and  the 
transaction  should  be  closed  without  further  loss  of 
valuable  time  and  without  allowing  the  interest  and 
desire  created  by  his  selling  talk  to  wane. 

14).  Creative  salesmanship. — The  propositions  han- 
dled by  many  salesmen  are,  by  nature,  indefinite  and 
intangible;  the  actual  details  of  the  proposition  must 
be  different  for  each  individual  prospect.  The  ad- 
vertising agency,  for  example,  has  nothing  more  tan- 
gible to  sell  than  the  services  of  a  skilled  organiza- 
tion. Naturally,  the  representative  of  the  agency  will 
include  in  his  talk  the  qualifications  of  the  members 
of  this  organization;  but  to  stop  there  would  accom- 
plish little.  Having  instilled  in  the  prospect  a  confi- 
dence in  the  ability  of  the  organization  to  handle  his 
advertising  problem,  the  agency  representative  must 
switch  to  a  definite  advertising  proposition  especially 
planned  to  suit  the  needs  of  the  individual  prospect. 

We  have  seen  that  the  insurance  man  and  very 
often  the  machinery  salesman  or  the  man  presenting 
office  filing  devices,  must  select  from  the  various 
propositions  that  his  house  could  offer,  one  which  is 
especially  suited  to  that  individual  prospect. 

Many  representatives  of  printing  houses  merely 
travel  from  one  large  printing  buyer  to  another  and 
give  a  general  talk  on  their  firm's  equipment  and  their 
ability  to  handle  large  orders,  to  do  quality  work  and 
to  make  rapid  delivery.  They  find  a  fair  average  of 
such  buyers  "in  the  market"  and  get  an  opportunity  to 


120  SALESMANSHIP 

submit  prices  on  work  to  be  given  out.  This  pro- 
cedure creates  little  new  business  and  keeps  the  sales- 
man competing  almost  entirely  on  a  price  basis.  The 
printing  salesman  worthy  of  the  name  will  visit  not 
only  houses  that  regularly  place  large  printing  orders, 
but  also  those  which  could  benefit  by  issuing  a  booklet 
or  a  catalog,  or  by  entering  upon  a  direct-by-mail 
advertising  campaign.  After  talking  equipment,  re- 
liability, quality  and  service,  and  having  secured  by 
one  or  more  calls,  an  insight  into  the  concern's  needs, 
the  salesman  will  focus  his  selling  talk  on  a  definite 
printing  program  for  that  individual  house.  His  talk 
will  be  illustrated  by  booklet  dummies  and  designs 
prepared  especially  for  the  purpose.  * 

This  is  the  sort  of  salesmanship  which  makes  two 
orders  grow  where  but  one  grew  before,  and  which 
creates  and  develops  customers  for  the  house.  There 
are  few  lines  where  it  cannot  be  applied  to  advantage. 
It  should  be  constantly  borne  in  mind  bj^  the  salesman 
selling  anything  more  or  less  intangible,  that  not  until 
a  definite  program  has  been  presented  for  the  pros- 
pect's approval,  can  any  real  desire  be  aroused,  or  any 
definite  attempt  be  made  to  close  a  sale.  This  work- 
ing from  the  general  to  the  specific  is  one  form  of 
creative  salesmanship. 

At  times  it  is  quite  possible  to  divert  a  prospect's 
thought  from  the  proposition  he  has  in  mind  to  one 
that  is  more  advantageous  both  to  him  and  to  the  sales- 
man. A  short  time  ago  a  new  addition  to  a  plant  in 
Rhode  Island  was  being  erected.     The  installation  of 


MISCELLANEOUS  121 

machinery  was  to  be  heavy  and,  as  a  consequence, 
every  machinery  concern  in  the  East  had  a  salesman 
on  the  ground.  Blue-prints  showing  the  installation 
had  been  distributed,  and  each  salesman  had  the  esti- 
mate of  his  house  ready  to  present  on  a  certain  date. 
One  of  the  salesmen,  when  he  carried  the  blue-print 
away,  thought  he  saw  a  chance  for  changes,  both  in 
lay-out  and  in  type  of  machines,  which  would  mate- 
rially increase  the  output  and  cut  costs.  He  took  the 
matter  up  with  the  engineers  at  his  company's  home 
office  and  got  out  an  entirely  new  set  of  drawings 
showing  the  new  installation  that  he  proposed.  On 
the  day  set  for  the  submission  of  bids  every  machinery 
salesman  but  this  one  submitted  a  bid  on  the  installa- 
tion as  originally  planned.  This  salesman,  when  his 
turn  came,  spread  his  new  plafts  before  the  board  of 
directors,  explained  the  changes  and  improvements 
proposed,  showed  how  costs  would  be  cut  and  output 
increased,  and  won  them  over  to  the  new  arrangement. 
Both  because  there  was  not  time  to  get  out  new  blue- 
prints and  secure  new  bids,  and  because  the  directors 
sincerely  felt  that  the  concern  that  discovered  the 
opportunity  should  have  the  business,  the  contract  to 
make  the  new  installation  was  closed  immediately. 

Let  us  look  at  an  example  of  this  same  sort  of 
ability  in  a  different  field  of  selling.  The  mail-order 
man  in  a  big  Chicago  house  had  telephoned  an  office- 
equipment  concern  for  a  new  section  of  filing  cabinets 
to  take  care  of  his  expanding  lists.  "Never  mind 
coming  in,"  he  said,  "just  send  it  along  and  mail  me 


122  SALESMANSHIP 

your  bill."  "Oh,  that's  all  right,"  replied  the  sales- 
man, "I  shall  be  passing  your  place  and  I  shall  just 
drop  in  anyhow."  He  called  later,  secured  the  order 
for  the  new  section,  and  was  apparently  just  prepar- 
ing to  leave  when  he  said:  "By  the  way,  have  you 
seen  these  new  filing  desks?"  and  without  waiting  for 
an  answer,  he  drew  out  a  special  catalog  and  began 
pointing  out  casually  just  how  filing  desks  could  be 
used  to  better  advantage  than  filing  cabinets  under  the 
very  conditions  existing  in  the  mail-order  man's  de- 
partment; Before  he  got  thru,  the  mail-order  man 
had  canceled  the  order  for  the  section  of  filing  cabinets 
and  had  ordered  two  filing  desks  to  replace  cabinets  in 
taking  care  of  his  lists.  Then  he  introduced  his 
friend,  the  filing-desk  man,  to  the  head  of  the  collec- 
tion department  and  strongly  recommended  that  the 
desks  be  tried  there,  too.  Result :  another  order  for  a 
filing  desk.  The  salesman  came  in  ostensibly  to  get 
an  order  for  $11  worth  of  filing  equipment — and 
left  with  $120  worth  of  business.  There  can  be 
little  doubt  that  this  achievement  was  the  result  of  a 
carefully  studied  and  well-worked-out  plan  which  the 
salesman  was  probably  using  with  little  variation  in 
all  similar  situations. 

These  are  instances  of  creative  salesmanship  at  its 
best.  Opportunities  for  it  are  numerous  in  practi- 
cally every  line. 


MISCELLANEOUS  123 


REVIEW 

Discuss  "After  the  sale"  from  the  standpoint  of  helping  the 
customer,  securing  his  cooperation,  preventing  possible  cancela- 
tion and  leaving  the  right  impression  with  him. 

What  is  meant  by  a  "bill  starter"  and  why  is  it  important? 

Discuss  "Think  it  over"  and  the  "call-back." 

Could  you  define  creative  salesmanship.''  How  could  the 
principle  be  applied  in  your  business.'' 


CHAPTER  VII 

HUMAN  APPEALS  THAT  SELL 

1.  Warm  friendship  versus  cold  service. — While 
we  have  used  the  scientific  method  in  discovering  the 
principles  of  salesmanship,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind 
constantly  that  a  sale  is  not  a  coldly  scientific  process. 
It  is  a  friendly,  red-blooded,  man-to-man  transaction. 
It  cannot  be  accomplished  by  any  scientific  formula 
that  neglects  the  human  element.  If  one  were  to  take 
the  trouble  to  investigate,  he  would  no  doubt  discover 
that  certain  definite  principles  might  be  followed  by 
an  aspirant  for  social  position,  but  it  is  at  the  same 
time  true  that  no  one  would  expect  to  become  a  social 
lion  merely  by  adhering  to  a  set  of  coldly  calculated 
rules.  The  same  principle  holds  true  in  selling.  In 
fact,  there  is  a  great  deal  of  the  social  in  successful 
selling. 

There  are  certain  definite  methods  of  securing  a 
prospect's  friendly  consideration,  however,  and  there 
are  a  number  of  fundamental  purchasing  motives  to 
which  appeal  may  be  made.  These  can  be  used  effec- 
tively by  the  salesman  who  is  sincere  in  his  methods. 

2.  Securing  prospect's  respect  and  admiration. — 
The  attitude  of  the  average  business  man  when  a  caller 
is  announced,  tends  toward  indifference.     His  resolve 

124 


HUMAN  APPEALS  THAT  SELL  125 

is  not  to  give  more  time  than  is  necessary,  but  he  is  not 
antagonistic.  On  the  other  hand,  unless  there  is  some 
definite  reason  for  it,  he  is  not  over-friendly.  The 
moment  a  salesman  appears,  therefore,  he  sways  the 
balance  for  or  against  him.self.  There  are  some  men 
who  are  easy  to  turn  down — to  shunt  off  without  a 
hearing.  They  seem  to  belittle  their  propositions,  no 
matter  how  important  these  may  be.  There  are 
others  to  whom  even  the  confirmed  "grouch"  accords  a 
courteous  reception.  They  dignify  their  proposi- 
tions. What  is  the  reason  for  the  difference?  We 
must  give  here  the  same  answers  that  we  have  given 
previously  in  a  different  connection:  caliber,  person- 
ality. We  shall  assume  that  the  salesman  is  clean- 
shaven, well  dressed  and  well  groomed.  The  develop- 
ment of  a  man's  intellect  and  his  tastes,  and  the  things 
to  which  he  devotes  himself  outside  of  business,  do 
much  to  determine  his  manner,  expression,  voice  and 
actions.  The  surest  way  for  a  man  to  improve  his 
salesmanship  is  to  improve  himself. 

Once  the  approach  has  been  made  and  the  interview 
secured,  there  should  be  something  in  the  poise,  evi- 
dent culture,  well-modulated  voice,  thoughtful  and 
courteous  manner  and  well-groomed  appearance  of 
the  salesman  that  will  excite  the  admiration  of  the 
prospect.  The  salesman  who  would  sell  his  goods  to 
the  prospect  must  first  sell  himself. 

3.  Securing  the  prospect's  friendship. — The  sales- 
man is  not  satisfied  merely  with  gaining  the  respect 
and  admiration  of  the  prospect.     A  man  may  be  re- 

VI— 10 


126  SALESMANSHIP 

spected,  and  even  admired,  and  still  be  disliked.  He 
wants  an  atmosphere  of  warm  friendliness  to  pervade 
the  entire  interview.  So  much  has  been  said  of  cour- 
age as  a  requisite  of  successful  salesmanship,  that  the 
natural  inclination  on  the  part  of  the  salesman,  espe- 
cially the  young  salesman,  is  to  set  his  mouth  in  a 
grim,  straight  line  and  prepare  to  fight  his  prospect 
for  an  interview.  Instead  of  doing  this,  he  should 
ask  himself  when  approaching  his  prospect,  "Now 
what  is  there  about  this  man  that  I  can  sincerely  like 
and  admire?" 

The  austerity  with  which  most  men  meet  salesmen 
is  usually  a  shell  beneath  which  there  is  a  smiling  good 
nature.  The  crustiest  individual  improves  upon  ac- 
quaintance, and  usually  gives  evidence  of  good  qual- 
ities. There  is  no  prospect  so  grouchy  that  he  is  not 
loved  by  some  people  and  sincerely  liked  by  a  great 
many  others.  Cheerfulness  begets  cheerfulness,  and 
if  the  salesman  has  a  sincere  liking  for  the  prospect 
tho  nothing  may  be  said,  it  will  manifest  itself  and 
enable  the  salesman  to  "get  under  the  prospect's  skin," 
so  to  speak.  The  only  way  to  handle  men,  to  influ- 
ence men,  to  sell  to  men,  is  to  love  them;  and  that 
love  must  be  sincere ;  it  cannot  be  successfully  counter- 
feited. The  real  salesman  likes  people,  both  collec- 
tively and  individually. 

This  same  principle  applies  as  regards  the  town  in 
which  the  salesman  is  w^orking.  The  young  salesman 
out  on  his  first  trip  is  apt  to  find  himself  of  an  evening 
in  a  small  town  in  an  ill-kept  hotel.     He  is  likely  to 


HUMAN  APPEALS  THAT  SELL  12T 

yield  to  the  impulse  to  write  long  letters  to  friends, 
telling  them  what  an  awful  town  he  has  struck,  and 
concluding  that  he  sees  small  chance  of  doing  business 
in  such  a  "one-horse  burgh."  The  star  salesman  who 
has  grown  gray  in  the  business  can  tell  you  the  good 
points  of  every  town  he  has  been  in.  If  its  citizens 
are  the  least  bit  progressive,  you  may  be  sure  he  knows 
it  and  praises  them  for  the  ambition  they  show.  If 
the  town  is  small,  he  will  be  able  to  point  out  that  at 
least  it  is  growing  and  that  it  has  more  paved  streets 
and  a  better  lio^htinff  svstem  than  most  towns  of  its 
kind.  If  its  industries  are  small,  nevertheless  they 
are  efficient.  He  is  not  at  all  surprised  that  able  busi- 
ness men  have  picked  the  town  to  live  and  work  in, 
and  he  does  not  wonder  how  they  ever  manage  to  re- 
main there.  It  is  absolutely  essential  that  the  sales- 
man get  in  harmony  with  his  environment  and  learn 
to  like  the  town  and  appreciate  the  spirit  of  its  citizens 
if  he  is  to  do  business  there. 

4.  The  sincere  compliment. — If  we  stop  to  think 
we  shall  realize  that  in  many  instances  the  chief  reason 
for  our  liking  some  people  is  that  they  like  us.  If  we 
recall  the  foremost  characteristics  of  men — salesmen 
and  others — who  have  won  our  confidence  and  friend- 
ship in  business,  we  shall  discover  that  their  chief  char- 
acteristic was  interest  in  us — interest  in  us  and  in  our 
business.  While  the  compliment,  however  sincere, 
that  comes  early  in  the  interview  may  arouse  sus- 
picion, the  fact  remains  that  pride  in  himself,  in  his 
business,  in  his  achievements,  and  in  the  opinion  that 


128  SALESMANSHIP 

others  hold  of  him  is  inherent  in  every  man.  Why 
not,  then,  in  the  course  of  the  interview,  comphment 
your  prospect  sincerely  on  his  firmness,  his  affability 
or  his  judgment,  as  the  case  may  be?  Why  not  re- 
mark admiringly  upon  the  individual  touches  that 
makes  his  business  stand  out  from  others?  Why  not 
congratulate  him  upon  his  achievements  in  business 
and  in  other  lines  ?  Why  not  mention  the  high  regard 
in  which  he  is  held  by  his  townspeople? 

We  like  to  hear  such  things  about  ourselves.  We 
are  convinced  that  there  is  that  about  us  which  can  be 
sincerely  liked  and  admired.  It  is  perfectly  evident, 
then,  that  the  same  must  be  true  of  the  other  man — of 
the  prospect.  We  recognize  these  good  qualities  in 
others,  but  somehow  fail  to  mention  them.  The  good 
salesman  is  a  student  of  human  natm*e;  he  under- 
stands these  virtues  and  manages  to  mention  them  in 
the  interview.  One  of  the  biggest  elements  of  success 
in  salesmanship  is  the  ability  to  see  and  tactfully  to 
acknowledge  the  good  qualities  of  the  prospective  cus- 
tomer. 

5.  Appealing  to  self-esteem. — The  exclusive- 
agency  man  who  asks  the  dealer's  opinion  of  his  plan 
is  merely  making  a  very  subtle  appeal  to  his  prospect's 
self-esteem.  The  story  is  told  of  a  man  who  came  out 
of  the  Southwest  a  few  years  ago  to  promote  and 
secure  financial  backing  for  a  development  company, 
the  profits  of  which  would  be  large  and  almost  cer- 
tain. He  felt  that  if  he  could  get  the  name  of  just 
one  big  man  in  Wall  Street  as  a  subscriber  to  his 


HUMAN  APPEALS  THAT  SELL  129 

stock,  the  rest  would  be  easy.  He  was  not  known  in 
the  financial  district,  however,  and  he  knew  that  he 
would  never  get  beyond  his  introductory  remarks  if 
it  became  apparent  that  he  was  trying  to  sell  stock  in 
a  new  promotion. 

One  evening,  at  an  exclusive  club  where  he  had  been 
a  guest  for  some  time,  he  managed  to  sit  beside  a  big 
financier  to  whom  he  had  been  introduced  some  time 
previously,  and  with  whom  he  had  associated  on  sev- 
eral occasions.     "Mr.  Brown,"  he  said,  "I  am  going 
to  ask  a  favor  of  you.     I  have  rather  a  large  propo- 
sition that  I  wish  to  submit.     The  trouble  is  that  I 
am  chiefly  a  practical  man.     I  can  swing  the  operat- 
ing end  after  a  company  has  been  organized,  but  I  am 
rather  green  about  the  financial  end.     Now,  I  don't 
know  any  of  the  big  men  down  in  the  Street,  but  I 
have  read  and  heard  much  about  you  and  your  enter- 
prises.    I  wonder  if  you  would  give  me  a  little  ad- 
vice."    The  big  man  leaned  forward,  smoothed  out  a 
scowl  that  had  begun  to  form,  and  prepared  to  listen. 
Give  him  advice?     Why,  of  course  he  would.     He 
had  thought  at  first,  tho,  that  this  man  had  intended 
trying  to  get  him  to  subscribe  to  some  stock.     Simply 
discussing  the  thing  as  one  man  of  business  might 
with  another  was  entirely  different.     The  promoter 
unfolded  his  story,  casually  producing  maps  and  read- 
ing here  and  there  from  the  reports  of  experts.     The 
financier  showed  more  and  more  interest  as  the  talk 
proceeded,  asked  a  number  of  questions,  and  examined 
minutely  the  several  documents  produced. 


130  SALESMANSHIP 

"Why,  man  alive,"  he  broke  in,  "that's  a  first-rate 
proposition.  Anyone  will  listen  to  you  on  that.  Of 
course,  what  you  need  first  of  all  is  money.  I'll  tell 
you  what  I'll  do.  Just  put  me  down  for  a  $25,000 
block  of  that  stock  now.  You  don't  need  much  ad- 
vice on  how  to  handle  this  thing.  Just  use  my  name 
to  get  in  to  see  some  of  the  fellows  and  tell  them  your 
story  just  as  you  told  it  to  me." 

Calling  upon  a  man  merely  to  get  his  advice  or  his 
friendship  and  cooperation,  or  for  some  other  such 
motive,  is  an  excellent  way  of  paying  him  a  compli- 
ment that  will  put  the  interview  on  a  friendly  footing. 

6.  Acquisitiveness  and  desire  for  profit. — The  ne- 
cessity of  taking  the  "yo^"  attitude,  of  appealing  to 
the  prospect's  self-interest,  of  showing  him  clearly 
how  he  will  be  benefited,  has  been  emphasized  previ- 
ously in  these  pages.  The  salesman  who  thinks  prin- 
cipally of  himself  and  his  house  during  the  interview 
probably  will  not  make  the  sale ;  he  will  do  well  to  for- 
get his  interests  and  think  of  the  prospect's  interests. 
In  the  last  analysis  we  are  all  selfish  and  self-centered ; 
we  buy  from  selfish  motives,  and  the  salesman  who  can 
satisfy  this  desire  for  gain  on  the  part  of  his  prospect 
is  appealing  successfully  to  the  most  deep-seated  of 
all  buying  motives. 

This  motive  rests  not  alone  upon  the  desire  to  get 
but  also  upon  the  desire  to  keep.  Some  years  ago  a 
collection  of  battle  pictures  of  the  Civil  War,  repro- 
duced from  famous  paintings,  was  put  on  the  market. 
The  price  for  the  series  was  fixed  at  five  dollars.     At 


HUMAN  APPEALS  THAT  SELL  131 

the  end  of  six  months,  close  to  sixty  thousand  dollars 
had  been  spent  for  advertising  and  the  receipts 
amounted  to  less  than  one  thousand  dollars.  It  was 
decided  to  cut  the  price  to  two  dollars  in  order  to  sell 
out  the  edition  and  recover  part  of  the  loss.  The  plan 
was  to  spend  no  more  money  but  simply  to  announce 
the  reduction  to  the  trade.  But  a  clever  advertising 
man  who  was  called  into  consultation,  conceived  the 
plan  of  sending  circular  letters  to  the  members  of  the 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  and  to  the  Sons  of 
Veterans,  inclosing  a  receipt  for  three  dollars,  made 
out  in  the  name  of  the  member  and  signed  by  the  pub- 
lishers, to  api^ly  on  the  purchase  of  the  pictures.  The 
price  of  the  pictures,  the  circular  stated,  was  five  dol- 
lars, but  the  publishers  wanted  every  member  of  these 
organizations  to  have  them — hence  the  receipt  which, 
accompanied  by  two  dollars,  would  entitle  the  mem- 
ber to  the  pictures. 

Here  was  something  of  value  with  which  it  was  dif- 
ficult to  part.  A  signed  receipt  for  three  dollars  is 
not  easily  thrown  away.  The  result  was  that  a  great 
many  of  these  men  used  their  receipts  either  to  get 
the  pictures  for  themselves  or  to  secure  them  for  a 
friend,  as  a  special  favor. 

This  same  appeal  to  acquisitiveness  can  be  made 
in  personal  salesmanship.  The  dealer  who  is  offered 
an  exclusive  agency  feels  that  he  has  within  his  grasp 
something  of  value  which  he  must  relinquish  if  he 
does  not  sign  up;  the  special  price  that  will  not  be 
offered  again  is  a  strong  incentive  to  immediate  pur- 


132  SALESMANSHIP 

chase.  The  offer  of  a  limited  supply  which  necessi- 
tates restricting  the  special  opportunity  to  a  favored 
few,  prompts  that  favored  few  to  take  advantage  of 
the  unusual  conditions.  The  special  arrangement  of 
a  wide  assortment  in  small  lots,  which  the  salesman 
will  make  for  today  only,  is  tempting.  Acquisitive- 
ness may  be  defined  as  that  quality  in  the  human  being 
which  makes  it  difficult  for  him  to  relinquish  anything 
of  potential  value. 

Closely  allied  with  this  characteristic  is  the  tendency 
of  the  average  person  to  reach  out  eagerly  for  any- 
thing that  is  held  back.  The  salesman  who  can  create 
the  impression  that  he  is  not  especially  anxious  to  sell 
can  create  in  the  prospect  an  anxiety  to  buy.  There 
is  something  in  human  nature  that  makes  us  want 
what  is  not  easy  to  get. 

7.  Love  of  home  and  family. — Business  men  may 
calculate  to  the  last  penny  where  their  business  is  con- 
cerned, but  ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred  are  gen- 
erous when  it  comes  to  the  home  and  the  comforts  of 
the  family  circle.  The  average  man  will  make  all 
sorts  of  sacrifices,  put  forth  extra  effort  and  spend 
much  time  on  trains,  to  provide  a  suburban  home 
which  he  himself  rarely  has  an  opportunity  to  enjoy 
by  daylight,  solely  in  order  that  his  wife  and  children 
may  be  comfortable.  The  piano  salesman,  when  he 
learns  that  the  prospect  has  a  daughter,  does  not  tell  of 
the  high-grade  finish  or  the  fact  that  this  instrument  is 
thirty  dollars  cheaper  than  a  competitor's,  but  points 
out  how,  with  a  piano  in  the  home,  the  daughter  will 


HUMAN  APPEALS  THAT  SELL  133 

be  happy  and  contented.  The  automobile  dealer 
talks  to  the  husband  and  father  in  terms  of  health  and 
enjoyment  for  his  wife  and  children  and  the  prospect 
will  buy  if  it  is  at  all  possible.  The  retail  salesman's 
suggestion  that  one  does  not  want  to  be  anything  but 
generous  in  the  home  is  often  sufficient  to  effect  the 
sale  of  high-priced  clothing  or  furniture  of  the  finest 
quality.  The  love  of  family  and  the  desire  to  do 
everything  possible  for  their  comfort  and  happiness 
in  the  home,  are  innate  in  every  man. 

8.  Some  fundamental  human  instincts. — Besides 
the  motives  which  have  been  discussed  there  are  others 
to  which  an  appeal  may  be  made.  A  prominent  psy- 
chologist says : 

The  generally  recognized  instincts  in  man  are  as  fol- 
lows :  fear,  anger,  shyness,  curiosity,  affection,  sexual  love, 
jealousy  and  envy,  rivalry,  sociability,  sympathy,  modesty, 
play,  imitation,  constructiveness,  secretiveness  and  acquisi- 
tiveness.-^ 

Some  of  these  have  been  already  considered ;  all  are 
powerful  motives  impelling  men  to  act.  The  sales- 
man, consequently,  as  a  skilled  workman,  should  con- 
sider them  his  tools,  employing  first  one,  then  another, 
or  combining  them  according  to  the  particular  situ- 
ation at  hand. 

9.  Two  avenues  of  appeal. — There  are  two  dis- 
tinct avenues  by  which  a  salesman  may  approach  the 
prospect  for  a  favorable  decision.  He  may,  by  pure 
logic  and  sound  argument,  appeal  to  the  prospect's 

1  James  R.  Angell,  "Psychology,"  p.  349. 


134.  SALESMANSHIP 

reason — to  his  intellect.  Or  he  may,  by  positive  sug- 
gestion and  vivid  word  pictures,  appeal  to  the  pros- 
pect's imagination — to  his  emotions. 

10.  Are  we  moved  by  reason  or  suggestion? — We 
are  prone  to  look  upon  man  as  a  purely  reasoning 
creature  who  comes  to  a  decision  by  carefully  weigh- 
ing all  arguments  pro  and  con  and  deliberately  decid- 
ing whether  to  do,  or  not  to  do,  the  thing  under  con- 
sideration. We  are  inclined  to  explain  our  own 
actions  according  to  this  theory,  either  because  we 
thoroly  believe  it  or  because  we  try  to  hide  what  Ave 
consider  to  have  been  our  weakness  in  coming  to  a  de- 
cision without  having  gone  thru  a  reasoning  process. 
For,  until  recently  at  least,  to  allow  the  emotions  to 
sway  one  even  in  an  unimportant  decision,  was  con- 
sidered either  childish  or  hysterical.  If  this  were 
true,  the  logical  appeal  to  the  intellect  would  be  the 
only  one  to  use  as  a  means  of  influencing  intelligent 
people. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  most  of  us  seldom  decide  things 
by  the  reasoning  process  alone.  The  man  who  makes 
even  a  majority  of  his  decisions  solely  by  reason  is 
indeed  rare.  Nor  is  it  true  that  the  ablest  men  are 
the  most  logical  men.  In  fact,  the  logical  individual 
is  likely  to  be  rather  cold  and  austere.  The  imagina- 
tive man,  who  is  ruled  by  his  emotions  rather  than  by 
his  intellect,  is  usually  most  successful  in  handling 
men  and  inspiring  enthusiasm  and  loyalty  in  those 
about  him.  In  the  crisis,  the  emotional  appeal  is  most 
potent.     "England    expects    every    man    to    do    his 


HUMAN  APPEALS  THAT  SELL  135 

duty,"  was  the  appeal  from  Nelson's  lips  that  won  the 
battle  of  Trafalgar.  "The  old  guard  dies  but  never 
surrenders"  was  the  slogan  that  gave  every  man  in 
that  glorious  company  the  strength  of  ten.  There 
is  dynamic  power  in  the  thought  that  appeals  to  the 
emotions  and  translated  into  action  it  accomplishes  a 
result  that  often  seems  superhuman. 

It  is  by  no  means  our  intention,  of  course,  to  inti- 
mate that  logic,  argument  and  sound  reasoning  are  not 
essential  and  even  vital  in  most,  if  not  in  all,  sales 
talks.  The  best  sale  talks  are,  as  a  rule,  a  skilful 
blending  of  intellectual  and  emotional  appeals. 

11.  Appeal  to  the  intellect. — Arguing  or  reason- 
ing with  a  prospect — that  is,  appealing  to  his  intellect 
alone — causes  deliberation  and  consequently  delay. 
He  considers  the  advisability  of  buying  or  not  buying 
— whether  to  give  in  to  the  salesman's  arguments  or  to 
resist  them.  He  will  weigh  pro  and  con  the  qualities 
of  the  salesman's  goods  as  compared  with  others. 
The  possibility  of  not  buying  is  always  kept  in  mind. 

If  by  cold  logic  and  direct  argument  the  salesman 
has  convinced  the  prospect,  against  his  inclination, 
that  he  ought  to  buy,  it  is  possible  that  he  will  have 
created  an  antagonism  which  will  render  the  closing  of 
the  sale  impossible.  Yet  here  again,  we  do  not  want 
to  get  the  impression  that  the  intellectual  appeal  has 
no  place  in  selling.  The  salesman  who  has  not 
studied  his  article  until  he  can  produce  reason  after 
reason  why  a  logical  man  should  buy  it,  is  not  likely 
to  succeed.     The  professional  purchasing  .agent  and 


136  SALESMANSHIP 

the  department  store  buyer  have  competitors'  goods 
in  mind  and  will  buy  from  the  salesman,  not  because 
his  proposition  is  a  good  one,  but  because  it  is  a  better 
one.  Hence  argument  is  necessary  in  selling  to 
trained  buyers.  In  the  sale  of  scientific  goods,  the 
ability  of  those  goods  to  do  the  work  for  which  they 
are  designed,  and  to  do  it  well,  must  be  demonstrated. 
Even  in  these  cases,  however,  suggestion  and  the 
imaginative  appeal  are  used  at  the  close.  The  de- 
partment store  buyer  must  imagine  the  goods  moving 
rapidly.  The  scientific  man  must  picture  himself 
using  the  article.  As  salesmen  we  should  realize  that, 
while  the  appeal  to  the  intellect  has  its  place,  cold 
logic  and  abstract  arguments  of  themselves  close  few 
sales.  They  must  be  accompanied  by  some  imagina- 
tive appeal  that  will  create  in  the  prosi^ect's  mind  a 
mental  picture  of  his  condition  and  needs  and  convert 
conviction  into  an  impulse  to  buy. 

12.  The  imaginative  appeal. — A  prominent  and 
well-to-do  lawyer  in  a  New  England  town  had  in 
his  office  a  veritable  rattle-trap  of  a  typewriter  whose 
type  was  badly  broken  and  out  of  alignment.  A 
typewriter  salesman  had  made  several  ineffectual  at- 
tempts to  get  him  to  buy  a  new  machine.  The  sales- 
man pointed  out  that  the  old  machine  would  not  last 
much  longer  anyhow,  and  that  its  appearance  was  not 
in  keeping  with  the  dignity  of  the  office,  but  all  to  no 
avail.  The  lawyer  clung  to  the  old  machine.  Then 
one  day  the  salesman  sat  down  in  his  own  office  and 
typed  a  page  of  legal  cap  on  a  disreputable  old  ma- 


HUMAN  APPEALS  THAT  SELL  137 

chine  that  he  had  taken  in  exchange;  the  typing  was 
blotchy,  broken  and  out  of  ahgnment.  Next,  he 
typed  a  similar  page  with  one  of  the  newest  and  best 
machines  in  stock.  With  this  material  in  hand,  he 
called  upon  the  lawyer. 

"jNIr.  Lawyer,"  he  began,  "when  you  go  before  a 
jury  you  are  particular  as  to  your  dress.  You  make 
sure  that  your  clothes  are  carefully  pressed ;  that  your 
shoes  are  polished;  that  your  linen  is  immaculate — 
and  you  would  never  think  of  appearing  in  court  with 
your  face  unshaven.  Why?  You  would  be  just  as 
good  a  lawyer,  no  matter  what  your  appearance. 
Your  arguments  would  be  just  as  forceful.  But  you 
are  afraid  that  a  poor  appearance  might  lessen  others' 
opinion  of  your  ability — create  a  bad  impression,  in 
other  words.  JMr.  Lawyer,  you  don't  always  get  an 
opportunity  to  present  your  cases  in  person.  Some- 
times you  are  asked  to  submit  briefs.  How  do  you 
get  up  your  briefs?  Like  this  (showing  the  poorly 
typed  sheet),  so  that  their  slovenly  appearance  de- 
tracts from  the  forcefulness  of  their  arguments?  Or 
like  this  (showing  the  neatly  typed  sheet),  immacu- 
late and  pleasing  in  dress  so  that  they  produce  a  favor- 
able impression  even  before  they  are  read?" 

This  appeal  to  the  imagination  put  the  whole  mat- 
ter in  a  new  light.  The  lawy^er  in  his  mind's  eye  saw 
the  judge  pick  up  his  slovenly  brief  and  frown  as  he 
glanced  at  it.  He  doubtless  recalled  close  decisions 
where  he  had  lost  when,  to  his  mind,  his  masterly  brief 
had  entitled  him  to  win.     The  sale  was  made. 


138  SALESMANSHIP 

By  the  imaginative  appeal  is  meant  the  introduclion 
into  the  prospect's  mind  of  some  suggestion  around 
which  the  prospect  constructs  a  mental  picture,  with 
himself  as  the  central  figure.  The  result  of  the  ap- 
peal to  the  intellect  is  analytical  in  its  nature.  The 
result  of  the  imaginative  appeal,  on  the  other  hand,  is 
synthetic — it  involves  the  relating  of  one  thought  to 
another  and  the  building  of  the  picture  in  the  mind  of 
the  prospect.  The  salesman  who  furnishes  a  stimulus 
for  this  synthesis  is  said  to  be  appealing  to  the  imagi- 
nation. 

An  examination  of  selling  talks  will  reveal  the  fact 
that  many  of  them  are  aimed  at  the  emotions.  The 
vacuum  cleaner  salesman  previously  referred  to 
caused  one  of  his  prospects  to  picture  herself  going  to 
the  matinee.  The  telephone  man  whose  work  has 
been  described  painted  for  the  merchant  a  vivid 
picture  of  clerks  wasting  time,  and  a  more  pleasant 
one  of  employes  giving  efficient  service  to  customers. 
iThere  is  in  New  York  a  builder  of  suburban  homes 
who  goes  to  considerable  expense  in  furnishing  one 
of  his  newly  constructed  houses  with  fine  rugs,  period 
furniture,  tapestry  and  expensive  pictures.  All 
prospects  are  taken  first  into  this  model  home  so  that 
they  may  imagine  themselves  living  there.  Then, 
and  not  until  then,  they  are  shown  the  other  houses; 
and  they  picture  every  one  furnished  like  the  model. 
This  same  man  has  instructed  his  salesmen  never  to 
use  the  word  "houses,"  but  always  "homes,"  because 


HUMAN  APPEALS  THAT  SELL  139 

the  latter  term  holds  the  greater  and  more  pleasurable 
appeal  to  the  imagination. 

In  the  great  achievements  of  history,  in  the  prog- 
ress of  invention  and  scientific  discovery,  we  find 
imagination  to  have  been  the  great  stimulus  to  action. 
In  selling,  the  imaginative  appeal  is  effective  because 
it  stirs  at  once  into  action. 

13.  Positive  suggestion. — The  imaginative  appeal 
is  made  by  introducing  into  the  prospect's  mind  sug- 
gestions calculated  to  form  associations,  or  associated 
ideas. 

An  order  blank  spread  squarely  in  front  of  the 
prospect  is  a  positive  suggestion  to  him  to  sign.  For 
this  reason  most  salesmen,  if  their  business  requires  a 
contract,  place  it  before  the  prospect  before  they  start 
their  closing  tactics.  They  also  hand  a  pen  to  the 
prospect.  Some  salesmen  prefer  to  reach  for  the 
prospect's  pen,  dip  it  into  the  ink  and  hand  it  to  him. 
Either  procedure  is  a  positive  suggestion  to  write — 
to  sign. 

That  these  suggestions  can  have  any  appreciable 
effect  is  difficult  to  believe  until  one  recalls  some  of 
the  marked  results  of  positive  suggestion.  Someone 
coughing  in  an  assemblage  starts  countless  other 
coughs.  A  person  sitting  opposite  another  in  a  street 
car  yawns,  and  lo!  the  observer  is  yawning,  too. 
This  will  nearly  always  be  so,  even  tho  the  observer 
has  consciously  and  firmly  set  his  mind  against  ac- 
cepting the  suggestion  to  yawn.     One  person  looking 


140  SALESMANSHIP 

intently  upward  will  cause  everyone  who  sees  him 
to  follow  his  gaze.  If  the  person  who  stares  per- 
severes, it  will  be  but  a  few  minutes  before  he  is 
surrounded  by  a  curious  crowd,  gazing  intently 
upward. 

14.  Positive  versus  negative  suggestions. — A  sales- 
man who  can  remain  in  a  happy  mood  and  main- 
tain a  cheerful,  smiling  countenance  before  a  pros- 
pect who  is  inclined  to  be  cranky  and  crabbed,  will 
eventually  suggest  cheerfulness  and  a  happy  mood 
to  the  customer  and,  before  long,  will  get  an  answer- 
ing smile  because  of  the  power  of  positive  suggestion. 

The  form  of  a  question  can  be  made  to  suggest  the 
answer.  "This  is  a  great  proposition,  don't  you  think 
so?"  is  a  positive  suggestion  which  will  often  bring -an 
aiRi'mative  answer.  "Do  you  think  this  is  a  good 
proposition?"  is  neutral  and  may  be  answered  in  either 
the  affirmative  or  in  the  negative.  "You  don't  think 
this  is  a  good  proposition?"  is  a  negative  suggestion 
that  will  bring  a  negative  answer.  In  retail  selling, 
"We  have  just  secured  some  new  neckwear  that  will 
harmonize  with  that  shirt  you  have  just  purchased; 
I  am  siu'e  j^ou  will  be  interested  in  looking  at  it,"  is 
a  positive  suggestion;  while,  "Is  there  nothing  else  I 
can  do  for  you  today?"  suggests  the  answer,  "Noth- 
ing else,  thank  you." 

A  garment  salesman  picking  up  his  sample,  scruti- 
nizing one  of  the  seams  closely,  and  putting  it  down 
without  a  word,  will  cause  his  prospect  to  imitate  the 
action.     The  prospect  will  discover   nothing  but   a 


HUMAN  APPEALS  THAT  SELL  141 

remarkably  well-finished  seam,  which  is  exactly  what 
the  salesman  wants  him  to  discover.  Thruout  the 
selhng  talk  the  salesman  says:  "You  will  get  this," 
and  "You  will  get  that,"  and  "These  goods  will  start 
to  move  off  your  shelves  the  moment  you  get  them  in," 
instead  of  prefixing  his  remarks  with  "If  you  buy," 
because  the  positive  assertion  creates  a  positive  sug- 
gestion that  the  prospect  is  going  to  buy. 

15.  Use  of  motives  and  appeaU. — A  great  pianist 
running  his  fingers  over  the  keyboard  strikes  a  key 
here  and  a  key  there  and  creates  a  beautiful  melody, 
and  then,  with  sureness  born  of  a  thoro  knowledge  of 
his  insti-ument,  strikes  the  keys  for  a  gi'and  harmoni- 
ous chord.  Another  might  go  thru  exactly  the  same 
motions,  might  strike  the  same  number  of  keys,  might 
prepare  for  the  chord  in  quite  the  same  way,  but, 
lacking  the  musician's  fine  knowledge  of  the  instru- 
ment, would  produce  nothing  but  discordant  sounds. 
The  salesman,  too,  is  a  musician,  and  his  instrument 
the  most  difficult  of  all  to  master — man.  He,  too,  by 
ceaseless  study,  by  constant  practice,  and  by  the  same 
love  of  his  work  that  animates  the  musician,  must 
learn  to  play  upon  the  heart-strings  of  his  prospects, 
picking  a  note  here  and  a  note  there  and  striking 
full  harmonious  chords.  He  must  not  only  master 
the  technique  of  his  profession  but,  actuated  by  a  keen 
interest  and  a  sincere  love  of  humanity,  he  acquires 
a  knowledge  of  human  nature  that  enables  him  with 
sure  strokes  to  touch  upon  the  motives  that  move  men 
to  action,  to  reach  their  intellects  with  sound  logic  or 

VI— 11 


142  .SALESMANSHIP 

to  stir  their  emotions  with  forceful  images.  Here, 
then,  is  the  real  difference  between  the  young  sales- 
man who,  starting  out  with  a  thoro  knowledge  of  the 
theory  of  selling,  gets  a  few  orders,  and  a  big,  regu- 
larly producing  star  of  the  sales  force — a  knowledge 
of  human  nature. 

REVIEW 

Discuss  the  statement,  "A  sale  is  not  a  coldly  scientific  process ; 
it    is    a    friendly,   red-blooded,   man-to-man   transaction." 

Why  should  the  salesman  endeavor  sincerely  to  like  and  ad- 
mire  each  prospect? 

Name  as  many  as  you  can  of  the  fundamental  instincts  to 
which  the  salesman  may  appeal.  W^hich  of  these  could  be  used 
in  your  business  and  how? 

Are  sales  made  mostly  thru  the  buyer's  intellect  or  thru  his 
emotions  ? 

What  is  the  importance  of  the  imaginative  appeal?     Illustrate. 

Is  an  imaginative  appeal  possible  in  your  line? 

Discuss  suggestion  as  it  applies  here. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  CHARACTER  AND  CALIBER 

1.  Part  of  character  and  caliber  in  salesmanshij). — 
While  there  is  a  science  of  salesmanship,  and  while 
we  can  obtain  from  the  experience  of  other  successful 
salesmen  rules  and  suggestions  for  getting  in  to  see 
a  prospect  and  for  holding  his  attention  and  interest, 
the  only  real  way  to  get  in  to  see  a  man,  after  all  is 
said  and  done,  is  to  look  and  act  like  the  kind  of  man 
who  ought  to  be  allowed  to  come  in.  The  only  real 
way  to  hold  a  man's  attention  and  interest  and  to 
gain  his  confidence,  is  to  be  a  man  of  sufficiently  large 
caliber  to  command  the  attention  and  interest  of  the 
prospect,  and  to  be  a  man  of  such  a  character  as  to 
compel  his  respect  and  admiration.  In  other  words, 
the  way  to  increase  one's  selling  ability  is  to  increase 
one's  caliber  and  strengthen  one's  character. 

2.  Thought^  study  and  work. — Curiously  enough, 
only  one  of  the  qualifications  essential  to  good  sales- 
manship has  to  do  directly  with  the  goods  to  be  sold ; 
the  others  have  to  do  with  the  salesman  himself.  The 
professional  back-slapper  type  of  salesman  has  given 
place  to  the  keen  analyst  and  close  student  of  human 
nature.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  the  qual- 
ities of  the  successful  salesmen  of  today  closely  re- 
semble those  which  mark  successful  men  in  general. 

143 


144«  SALESMANSHIP 

The  salesman,  however,  must  possess  to  a  higher  de- 
gree than  most  men,  a  pleasing  personality  and  a 
keen  sympathy  for  others  so  that  he  may  establish  in 
a  short  time  that  confidence  and  esteem,  the  cultiva- 
tion of  which  men  in  other  walks  may  leave  to  time. 

Any  list  of  the  qualifications  essential  to  salesman- 
ship must  be  more  or  less  arbitrary.  Probably  no  two 
sales  managers  would  give  exactly  the  same  answer 
if  they  were  asked  what  qualities  they  look  for  in  sales- 
men. A  close  study  of  various  answers  to  this  ques- 
tion, however,  reveals  the  fact  that  the  differences  are 
largely  matters  of  definition.  The  list  here  given  is 
the  product  of  the  experience  of  many  successful 
salesmen  and  sales  managers. 

The  lack  of  some  of  the  qualities  enumerated  need 
by  no  means  discourage  the  new  salesman.  There  are 
few  who  have  all  these  qualities  even  fairly  well  de- 
veloped. There  are  fewer  who  have  no  negative 
qualities  offsetting  their  positive  ones.  The  man  who 
has  all  these  qualifications  developed  to  the  highest 
possible  extent  does  not  exist.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  are  few  salesmen  who  have  not  some  of  these 
qualities  at  least  fairly  well  developed.  The  old 
theory  that  some  of  the  qualities  enumerated  are  in- 
herent and  cannot  be  acquired  is  fast  giving  way  to  a 
realization  that,  while  it  is  more  difficult  to  acquire 
some  than  others,  education,  training,  favorable  en- 
vironment and  constant  endeavor  will  enable  most  of 
us  to  root  out  negative  qualities  and  develop  strong, 
positive  ones  to  a  satisfactory  degree.     Successful 


CHARACTER  AND  CALIBER  145 

salesmanship  is  largely  a  matter  of  a  constant  en- 
deavor to  improve  oneself.  However  sales  managers 
may  differ  as  to  the  qualities  they  require  in  salesmen, 
they  will  all  agree  upon  three :  the  habits  of  intelligent 
thought,  constant  study  and  hard  work. 

3.  Native  ability. — Native  ability  makes  one  man 
quick-witted  and  sharp,  while  his  neighbor  may  be 
slow-witted  and  dull.  Native  ability  includes  apti- 
tude— the  faculty  of  grasping  facts  quickly.  It  in- 
cludes intuition — the  ability  to  sense  instinctively  the 
true  status  of  a  given  situation.  It  includes  initia- 
tive— the  ability  to  originate,  to  plan  and  to  carry  out 
the  plan.  It  includes  adaptability — the  power  to  fit 
oneself  into  changing  environments  and  conditions. 
It  includes  resourcefulness — the  ability  to  make  suc- 
cessfully a  move  that  is  dictated  by  the  circumstances, 
and  to  oppose  the  counter-moves  of  others. 

While  native  ability  has  been  termed  inherent,  and 
while  it  must  be  admitted  that  a  good  mental  equip- 
ment is  essential  to  salesmanship,  natural  ability  can 
be  greatly  improved.  Aptitude  can  be  developed  by 
study.  Intuition  is  to  some  extent  the  result  of  the 
interpretation  of  experience.  Initiative,  the  ability 
to  originate  and  plan,  is  dependent  to  a  great  ex- 
tent upon  knowledge.  Adaptability  can  be  de- 
veloped by  throwing  oneself  into  changing  environ- 
ments and  by  seeking  the  society  of  those  from  whom 
we  can  learn  the  art  of  adaptation.  Resourcefulness 
can  be  cultivated  if  one  will  try  faithfully  to  cope  with 
every  situation  in  his  experience. 


146  SALESMANSHIP 

Some  men  are  more  brilliant  than  others.  Some, 
by  reason  of  temperament  and  past  environment,  are 
better  fitted  for  one  occupation  than  for  another. 
But  the  native  ability  of  any  man  can  be  developed 
along  selling  lines  as  well  as  along  others,  and  any 
individual  who  possesses  a  fair  amount  of  native  abil- 
ity can  be  trained  to  sell. 

4.  Health. — In  many  walks  of  life  some  men,  thru 
an  indomitable  will,  have  succeeded  in  spite  of  bodily 
illness.  They  are  the  exceptions  that  prove  the  rule, 
however,  and  we  can  only  speculate  as  to  how  much 
greater  they  might  have  been  had  bodily  vigor  been 
added  to  their  mental  attainments.  It  is  more  com- 
mon to  hear  of  men  like  Theodore  Roosevelt,  who,  bj^ 
following  a  strict  system  of  right  living,  right  breath- 
ing, right  eating  and  right  exercise  have  built  for 
themselves  a  strong  body. 

A  salesman,  probably  more  than  anyone  else, 
should  have  a  strong,  healthy  body  and  mind.  He 
will  find  it  difficult  to  influence  and  dominate  strong 
and  healthy  people  unless  he  himself  is  in  the  best  of 
condition  both  physically  and  mentally — and  one's 
physical  condition  has  much  to  do  with  one's  mental 
attitude,  especially  as  regards  optimism  and  cheerful- 
ness. The  salesman's  arduous  duties  require  a  large 
daily  supplj^  of  strength  and  vitality,  and  it  is  just  as 
much  a  part  of  his  duty  to  himself  and  to  his  house  to 
see  that  this  vitality  is  constantly  renewed  as  it  is  to 
know  his  goods. 

A  salesman  should  not  be  satisfied  merely  because 


CHARACTER  AND  CALIBER  147 

he  is  not  actually  sick  in  bed.  Many  a  sallow  cheek 
could  have  color  in  it.  Many  a  blurred  eye  could  be 
clear  and  bright.  A  little  more  fitness  for  the  fray 
would  put  spring  into  many  a  dragging  step.  The 
salesman  should  be  satisfied  with  nothing  less  than  an 
attitude,  an  appearance  and  a  carriage  that  will  indi- 
cate the  top  notch  of  bodily  vigor. 

Emerson  says:  "Physical  exuberance,  surcharge 
of  arterial  blood,  a  strong  heart  and  a  bounding  pulse 
— these  are  the  bases  of  the  powers  that  make  men 
and  nations  great.  In  the  last  analysis,  great  human 
achievements  rest  on  perfect  physical  health." 

5.  Preparedness. — Two  salesmen  were  talking  to- 
gether in  the  lobby  of  a  large  hotel.  One  of  them, 
who  had  been  selling  paint  successfully  for  one  con- 
cern for  fifteen  years,  confided  to  the  other  that  he  had 
not  done  a  stroke  of  business  on  the  trip  he  was  then 
making,  and  announced  his  intention  of  going  back  to 
his  headquarters  in  Cleveland  and  resigning.  The 
other,  who  was  a  salesman  of  the  new  school,  having 
ascertained  that  this  man's  paint  concern  was  an  old 
establishment,  but  little  known,  began  to  ply  the  older 
man  with  questions  as  to  what  points  of  superiority 
his  paints  had  over  others,  how  they  compared  in  price 
with  better  known  paints,  and  what  reasons  there 
were,  in  his  opinion,  for  a  person  to  buy  his  paint  in 
preference  to  the  more  widely  advertised  brands. 
The  paint  salesman  was  unable  to  answer  any  one  of 
these  questions!  He  did  not  know!  He  had  just 
been  dropping  around  on  the  dealers  in  that  section 


148  SALESMANSHIP 

for  the  last  fifteen  years,  selling  them  paint,  and  now 
he  suddenly  found  himself  unable  to  sell  them  any 
more.  That  was  all  he  knew.  Before  the  conversa- 
tion ended  he  had  made  a  note  of  the  questions  that 
the  younger  man  had  asked,  and  had  decided  to  go 
back  to  his  concern,  not  to  resign,  but  to  get  the  an- 
swers to  those  questions;  then,  he  resolved,  he  would 
take  another  swing  around  the  circuit.  That  man  was 
unprepared. 

Senator  Beveridge,  who  was  once  a  salesman,  says 
that  being  prepared  is  the  secret  of  most  successes  in 
this  world ;  that  fate  seldom  sides  with  the  unequipped. 
To  succeed  in  selling  anything,  the  salesman  must 
prepare  himself  by  first  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  the 
principles  of  his  craft,  and  then  mastering  the  details 
of  his  proposition.  He  must  have  his  selling  points 
marshalled  and  under  full  control.  He  must  be  pre- 
pared to  answer  any  questions  that  may  arise.  The 
fact  that  a  salesman  has  had  a  good  preparation  does 
not  mean  that  his  study  should  cease  when  he  begins  to 
work,  any  more  than  one  would  expect  a  good  lawyer 
to  stop  reading  law  after  starting  practice.  Knowl- 
edge of  goods  and  of  selling  points  does  not  come  by 
intuition  or  inspiration,  but  by  study  and  application. 

Xor  should  the  salesman's  study  stop  when  he 
knows  the  selling  points.  When  a  salesman  is  not 
traveling,  he  should  take  time  to  study  the  goods  he  is 
selling.  If  he  has  not  come  up  thru  the  manufac- 
turing department  and  is  not  familiar  with  the  plant, 
he  would  do  well  to  spend  some  of  his  time  there. 


CHARACTER  AND  CALIBER  149 

There  was  once  a  salesman  who  sold  a  line  of  toys  for 
five  years  before  he  learned  that  gi*eat  care  was  taken 
in  the  factory  to  keep  the  coloring  matter  free  from 
poison. 

A  knowledge  of  the  stock  room,  of  how  orders  are 
handled,  packed  and  shipped,  and  of  how  collections 
are  made,  will  enable  the  salesman  to  discover 
whether  or  not  a  customer's  last  order  was  shipped 
promptly  and  whether  or  not  he  paid  for  it,  before 
he  calls  on  him  for  another. 

One  would  suppose  that  no  salesman  ever  did  neg- 
lect these  things,  but  buyers  in  various  lines  will  testify 
that  the  nmiiber  of  salesmen  who  call  upon  them  un- 
prepared— without  a  proper  knowledge  of  their  goods 
— is  startiingly  large.  Buyers  in  department  stores 
say  that  it  is  quite  common  for  a  salesman  to  call  for 
a  second  order  before  the  first  has  been  shij^ped. 
Often  instead  of  being  fully  acquainted  with  the  facts, 
the  salesman  is  surprised  to  learn  from  the  buyer  that 
there  has  been  a  delay. 

The  question  very  often  put  to  buyers :  "What  kind 
of  salesman  secures  your  friendship  and  your  busi- 
ness?" invariably  brings  the  response:  "The  man  who 
knows  his  business  and  tells  me  something  new  about 
it,  and  who  brings  me  new  ideas  about  mine."  This 
answer  seems  to  be  especially  applicable  in  the  case  of 
highly  competitive  lines  and  would  seem  to  indicate 
the  way  to  success  for  the  salesmen  who  must  compete 
with  others  on  an  even  basis  as  regards  price,  quality 
and  service.     There  are  any  number  of  men  soliciting 


150  SALESMANSHIP 

orders  for  printing,  but  there  are  comparatively  few 
among  them  who  know  enough  about  printing  to  fur- 
nish the  buyer  with  fresh  ideas  or  to  originate  plans 
for  him.  The  printing  buyer,  nine  times  out  of  ten, 
does  not  know  as  much  as  he  should  about  printing  and 
therefore  welcomes  the  man  who  can  increase  his  in- 
formation. He  shows  his  appreciation  by  giving  such 
a  man  his  business,  sometimes  even  paying  a  higher 
price  than  he  ordinarily  would  pay.  The  engraving 
salesman  who  knows  his  business  and  can  correctly 
interpret  the  buyer's  ideas  in  regard  to  the  finished  cut 
is  as  successful  as  he  is  rare. 

But  the  salesman's  information  should  include  more 
than  this.  He  should  know  what  raw  materials  enter 
into  the  product  he  is  selling,  the  history  of  those  raw 
materials  and  the  processes  that  they  go  thru.  The 
retail  lace  salesman  can  arouse  in  the  prospect  a  very 
keen  interest  if  he  will  but  read  up  on  laces.  The 
grocery  salesman  who  can  talk  about  growing  and 
canning  processes  is  a  man  who  will  interest  the 
dealer.  The  clothing  salesman  who  knows  some- 
thing about  long  and  short  staple  wool,  the  processes 
in  the  making  of  fine  worsteds,  dyeing  in  the  piece 
and  in  the  thi-ead,  and  the  small  details  that  make  for 
quality  in  a  garment,  can  interest  the  buyer  and, 
incidentally,  point  out  some  of  the  superior  qualities 
of  the  garment  that  he  is  selling. 

Most  sales  managers  today  provide  a  more  or  less 
thoro  and  systematic  training  for  salesmen  who  join 
their  organizations,  give  them  a  fair  working  knowl- 


CHARACTER  AND  CALIBER  151 

edge  of  the  selling  points  of  the  goods  they  are  to  sell, 
and  furnish  them  with  the  plan  of  a  selling  talk  that 
has  proved  successful  in  practice.  If  the  salesman 
is  employed  by  a  house  that  does  not  do  these  things, 
or  is  selling  for  himself,  he  must  be  his  own  sales  man- 
ager to  the  extent  of  recognizing  and  selecting  the 
selling  points  of  his  goods  and  planning  an  effective 
selling  talk.  In  this  connection  it  would  be  well  to 
read  the  portion  of  Part  II  of  this  Text  that  treats  of 
the  training  of  salesmen,  the  building  of  a  sales  man- 
ual, the  selection  of  selling  points  and  the  planning  of 
a  selling  talk. 

6.  Ambition. — Some  men  dream  of  success  and 
others  will  frankly  admit  that  they  are  ambitious,  but 
the  men  who  will  go  forth  in  earnest  and  struggle  un- 
ceasingly to  satisfy  their  ambition  are  few  and  far  be- 
tween. This  kind  of  ambition  is  a  prime  requisite 
of  salesmanship.  Salesmen  should  take  ambition  for 
their  running  mate;  they  should  be  imbued  with  a 
steadfast  purpose  of  achieving  something  worth  while. 
The  salesman's  ambition  to  make  a  record  is  often  the 
means  of  his  discovering  new  methods  of  increasing 
sales,  new  avenues  of  approach  and  new  uses  for  the 
product.  Complacency,  on  the  other  hand,  never  in- 
creased business.  When  a  salesman's  self-satisfac- 
tion becomes  indifference  and  indolence  he  is  on  the 
road  to  dismal  failure. 

The  spur  of  ambition  should  continually  urge  the 
salesman  forward.  Did  he  have  a  large  volume  of 
sales  today?     Make  tomorrow's  better.     Did  he  se- 


152  SALESMANSHIP 

cure  some  particularly  large  single  orders?  How  can 
he  make  the  next  ones  larger?  Has  he  discovered  a 
new  class  of  prospects  for  his  goods  ?  Are  there  any 
that  he  has  missed  ?  Most  men  achieve  little  because 
they  attempt  little.  On  the  other  hand,  the  more  one 
accomplishes  the  more  one  becomes  capable  of  accom- 
plishing. In  order  to  increase  his  capacity,  therefore, 
a  man  need  only  combine  ambition  with  application. 

7.  Ap2)lication. — As  the  term  is  here  used,  applica- 
tion includes  the  determination  to  carry  things  thru — 
a  capacity  for  hard  work,  stick-to-it-iveness,  perse- 
verance, energy.  The  difference  between  success  and 
failure  in  any  line  is  found  largely  in  the  degree  of 
application.  There  is,  perhaps,  no  profession  where 
this  is  more  apparent  than  in  salesmanship.  A  man 
of  fair  intelligence  and  great  energy  will  succeed  in 
the  selling  field,  whereas  a  man  of  brilliant  mind  and 
little  energy  is  likely  to  fail  miserablJ^ 

8.  Observation. — A  salesman  arrives  in  a  town. 
He  should  have  his  eyes  open  and  begin  his  obser- 
vations immediately.  He  climbs  on  a  'bus,  and  is 
driven  to  his  hotel.  By  the  time  he  reaches  it  he 
should  have  observed  something  that  will  enable  him 
to  say  a  good  word  about  the  town.  He  immediately 
gets  out  his  sample  case  and  walks  up  the  street  to 
his  first  prospect.  From  the  moment  he  gets  into  his 
prospect's  place  of  business,  or  in  the  case  of  a  retail 
salesman,  the  moment  the  prospect  approaches  the 
counter,  various  signs  that  he  should  read  are  in  evi- 
dence ;  he  should  train  his  powders  of  observation  to  see 


CHARACTER  AND  CALIBER  153 

and  interpret  them.  He  should  be  able  to  make  a 
quick  mental  note  of  the  sm-roundings,  of  the  pros- 
pect's appearance  and  of  the  conditions  in  which  he 
finds  him.  He  should  be  able  to  determine  whether 
the  circumstances  are  auspicious  for  a  favorable  ap- 
proach. He  should  observe  the  tone  of  his  prospect's 
voice,  the  expression  of  his  eye  and  his  general  bear- 
ing, for  these  things  will  indicate  to  the  salesman  his 
method  of  procedure.  A  rapid  estimate  of  this  kind 
will  enable  the  salesman  to  adjust  himself  to  the  situ- 
ation without  delay.  Above  all,  he  should  be  quick 
to  note  when  the  prospect  has  reached  a  favorable 
decision,  and  strive  to  close  the  sale.  This  power  of 
quick  observation  can  be  acquired  and  developed  by 
practice. 

9.  Tact. — Such  observation  as  has  just  been  men- 
tioned is  closely  associated  with  another  important 
quality — tact.  A  salesman  traveling  for  a  clothing 
house  approached  one  of  the  partners  of  a  firm  that 
had  been  handling  his  line  regularly.  He  was  met 
with  a  volley  of  abuse  directed  at  both  himself  and  his 
goods.  While  he  stood  there  half  convinced  that  the 
outburst  had  no  foundation  but  the  customer's  state 
of  mind,  and  waiting  for  some  definite  complaint  on 
which  to  hang  an  offer  of  adjustment,  the  speaker 
ended  abruptly  with:  "Besides,  I'm  not  buying  that 
line  any  more.  My  partner  has  taken  over  the  man- 
agement of  that  department." 

The  salesman,  seeing  the  partner  in  the  front  part  of 
the  store,  hurriedly  excused  himself  with  the  statement 


154.  SALESMANSHIP 

that  he  would  adjust  the  matter,  approached  the  other 
partner  and  said:  "Mr.  Brown,  your  partner  tells 
me  that  you  are  buying  men's  clothing  this  year. 
Shall  I  bring  my  trunks  in  here,  or  do  you  want  to 
walk  across  the  street  to  the  hotel  with  me  now  where 
I  have  them  all  opened  up?"  "Oh,"  replied  the  sec- 
ond partner,  "I  guess  I'll  walk  over  to  the  hotel  with 
you." 

That  was  tact.  The  salesman  conjectured  that  the 
attitude  of  the  first  man  was  due  to  the  fact  that  he 
had  not  obtained  a  satisfactory  profit  the  previous 
year,  and  not  to  any  fault  of  the  goods  themselves. 
He  further  decided  that  to  show  his  goods  in  the  store 
where  the  aggrieved  partner  might  interfere  would 
endanger  the  sale,  so  he  threw  into  his  question  to  the 
second  man  a  strong  positive  suggestion  that  he  go 
over  to  the  hotel. 

Tact  is  defined  as  the  ready  power  of  appreciating 
and  doing  what  is  required  by  circumstances.  It  is 
really  the  outward  expression  of  intuition.  It  is  the 
attribute  that  enables  a  man  to  deal  with  others  with- 
out friction,  to  adapt  himself  to  circumstances  and  to 
do  the  right  thing  in  the  right  place.  The  tactful 
salesman  humors  his  customers'  opinions  when  they 
are  not  antagonistic;  he  governs  his  manner  and 
speech  to  suit  the  peculiarities  of  the  man  with  whom 
he  is  dealing.  He  bases  his  selling  talks  on  his  knowl- 
edge of  his  customer's  likes  and  dislikes.  He  avoids 
such  topics  of  conversation  with  his  customer  as  poli- 
tics and  religion.     Tact,  in  short,  is  a  sort  of  sixth 


CHARACTER  AND  CALIBER  155 

sense — a  combination  of  wisdom  and  good  judgment 
— which  enables  the  salesman  at  a  glance  to  size  up  the 
man  and  the  situation  in  which  he  finds  him  and  to 
take  the  right  steps  to  secure  an  immediate  order  and 
establish  future  cordial  relations. 

A  great  sales  manager  has  said  that  there  are  three 
kinds  of  salesmen:  Men  who  always  say  the  right 
thing  at  the  right  time  and  know  their  reasons  for 
doing  so — they  are  big,  steady  producers;  men  who 
occasionally  say  the  right  thing  at  the  right  time,  but 
who  have  no  definite  reason  for  saying  it — they  are 
spasmodic  producers;  men  who  never  say  the  right 
thing  at  the  right  time  because  they  have  neither 
intuition  nor  tact — the  few  sales  they  make  are  made 
by  main  strength. 

Some  fortunate  people  are  born  with  tact  highly 
developed;  others  have  it,  but  allow  it  to  fall  into 
disuse ;  still  more  must  acquire  it ;  and  there  are  a  few 
who  are  neither  born  with  it  nor  acquire  it.  Lack  of 
tact,  however,  is  largely  a  matter  of  thoughtlessness 
and  selfishness — of  being  so  self -centered  as  to  be  Un- 
able to  get  the  other  person's  point  of  view. 

Tact  should  be  cultivated,  for  it  is  as  essential  to 
success  as  knowledge.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  without 
tact  a  great  deal  of  knowledge  goes  for  nothing.  A 
simple,  practical  and  effective  rule  for  developing  tact 
and  the  personal  magnetism  that  goes  with  it,  is  for 
the  salesman  to  strive  to  do  or  say  something  in  each 
interview  that  will  leave  the  prospect  feeling  better 
for  having  met  him  and  influence  him  to  give  the  sales- 


156  SALESMANSHIP 

man  a  warm,  friendly  reception  when  he  comes  again. 
10.  Concentration. — The  sun's  rays  do  not  burn 
until  they  are  brought  to  a  focus.  The  success  of  the 
salesman  results  not  so  much  from  effort  as  from  an 
intelligent  direction  of  effort,  which,  in  turn,  presup- 
poses concentration — concentration  on  the  acquiring 
of  desirable  habits;  concentration  on  the  planning  of 
the  work;  concentration  on  the  goods  to  be  sold,  and 
concentration  on  each  individual  sale.  This  is  a 
quality  that  must  be  acquired  by  constant  practice. 
David  Graham  Phillips,  a  close  student  of  human  na- 
ture, said: 

Most  of  us  cannot  concentrate  at  all ;  any  slight  distrac- 
tion suffices  to  disrupt  and  destroy  the  wlioie  train  of 
thought.  A  good  many  can  concentrate  for  a  few  hours, 
for  a  week  or  so,  for  two  or  three  months ;  but  there  comes 
a  small  achievement  and  they  are  satisfied ;  or  a  small  dis- 
couragement, and  they  are  disheartened.  Only  to  the  rare 
few  is  given  the  power  to  concentrate  steadily,  year  in  and 
year  out,  thru  good  and  evil  events  or  reports. 

Concentration,  or  singleness  of  purpose,  is  a  dis- 
tinguishing characteristic  of  success  in  selling  or  in 
any  other  field. 

JNIost  propositions  are  big  enough  and  important 
enough  to  justify  a  salesman's  giving  to  them  his 
entire  time  and  attention;  only  h\  giving  both  freely 
can  he  reach  the  highest  degree  of  efficiency.  JNIany 
men  could  reach  at  least  a  fan*  measure  of  success  if 
they  would  but  develop  the  power  of  continuous  con- 
centration. Because  they  do  not  develop  that  power, 
because  they  hammer  all  around  the  nail  instead  of 


CHARACTER  AND  CALIBER  157 

hitting  it  on  the  head,  they  continue  to  sell  their 
services  for  just  enough  to  enable  them  to  eke  out  an 
existence.  The  salesman  who  would  be  successful 
today  must  learn  to  concentrate  all  his  thoughts  upon 
the  work  in  hand.     As  John  D.  Rockefeller  says: 

If  you  are  in  earnest  to  the  innermost  fiber  of  your  body, 
there  is  no  power  that  can  hold  you  back  from  the  object  you 
strive  to  attain. 

II.  Courage. — It  takes  courage  to  be  honest  under 
all  circumstances;  to  apply  the  whip  of  ambition  re- 
lentlessly; to  look  the  tenth  man  in  the  face  with  a 
smile  after  having  been  turned  down  by  the  preceding 
nine — not  with  a  smile  that  ends  at  the  teeth,  but  with 
one  that  extends  right  to  the  heart;  to  persist  in  the 
face  of  difficulty;  to  refrain  from  overindulgence;  to 
force  oneself  to  work  at  top  speed;  and  to  refuse  to 
let  one's  mentality  slumber  during  working  hours. 
Courage,  in  this  connection,  is  synonymous  with  a 
determined  will — a  will  that  is  akin  to  audacity,  that 
is  fearless  to  the  verge  of  recklessness,  that  will  not 
yield  to  seemingly  insurmountable  difficulties. 

Want  of  courage — fear — mars  the  first  moment  of 
the  salesman's  interview ;  makes  the  voice  shake,  when 
it  should  be  round  and  full ;  causes  the  mouth  to  droop 
at  the  corners,  when  it  should  be  smiling ;  and  robs  the 
handshake  of  its  grip.  Fear  of  the  prospect  will  cause 
the  salesman  instinctively  to  dislike  him,  prevent  him 
from  carrying  out  carefully  laid  plans  and  greatly 
weaken  the  close.  INIost  j^oung  salesmen  have  this 
fear  at  the  start.     They  can  be  successful  only  in  so 

VI— 12 


158  SALESMANSHIP 

far  as  they  overcome  it ;  and  j  ust  as  soon  as  they  over- 
come it  entirely — provided  they  have  the  necessary 
quahfications — they  will  join  the  ranks  of  the  big  pro- 
ducers. No  salesman  should  allow  a  lack  of  courage 
to  stand  between  him  and  big  business  success. 

12.  Honesty. — As  a  business  proposition,  it  pays  a 
man  to  be  honest — with  himself  first  of  all,  and  then 
with  his  firm  and  his  customers.  Modern  business  has 
raised  the  standard  of  business  ethics  and  has  made 
honesty  both  popular  and  profitable.  The  salesman, 
in  asking  himself  whether  or  not  he  is  an  honest  man — 
and  we  should  always  remember  that  the  only  true 
answer  to  that  question  must  come  from  within — 
should  bear  in  mind  that  there  are  various  grades  of 
dishonesty.  Of  course,  it  takes  a  desperate  man 
actually  to  appropriate  his  concern's  funds;  and  a 
small  man  to  pad  an  expense  account.  But  that  man 
is  dishonest  as  well  who  knowingly  oversells  a  cus- 
tomer ;  who  makes  loose  promises  to  secure  an  order ; 
who  fails  to  correct  a  misunderstanding  for  fear  of 
jeopardizing  an  order;  who  fails  to  get  a  sample  room 
when  he  knows  that  his  negligence  will  hurt  the  inter- 
ests of  his  house ;  who  waits  over  a  train  or  two  to  have 
the  company  of  a  fellow  salesman  to  the  next  stop — ^- 
or  so  as  not  to  break  up  a  congenial  card  party;  who 
carries  a  side  line;  or  who  spends  his  spare  time  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  give  his  house  below-par  service. 
A  salesman  cannot  do  any  of  these  things  and  retain 
his  self-respect  and  the  confidence  and  esteem  of  his 
concern  and  his  customers. 


CHARACTER  AND  CALIBER  159 

There  are  some  salesmen  who  are  known  as  "one- 
trippers."  Then-  first  trip  to  a  territory  results  in  a 
fine  volume  of  business,  but  eventually  there  comes  a 
cancelation  because  of  overselling,  a  protest  that  the 
salesman's  promise  of  an  exclusive  agency  was  not 
kept,  and  complaints  everywhere  of  shady  dealings. 
The  salesman  is  not  in  a  position,  under  such  circum- 
stances, to  go  over  the  territory  again,  and  the  chances 
of  future  business  for  the  concern  are  doubtful. 
These  offenses  are  not  tolerated  by  the  right  kind  of 
employers — and  any  other  sort  cannot  buy  the  services 
of  self-respecting  men. 

The  truly  honest  salesman  gives  his  house  the  best 
that  is  in  him,  tells  nothing  but  the  truth  about  his 
goods,  never  oversells,  and  can  go  over  his  territory 
again  and  again,  gathering  an  increasing  host  of 
friends  for  himself  and  his  concern  on  each  trip.  He 
is  a  "repeater." 

Above  all,  no  one  should  sell  a  proposition  that  is 
not  strictly  honest  in  every  particular.  The  demand 
for  able  salesmen  to  sell  honest  propositions  so  far  ex- 
ceeds the  supply  that  there  is  no  reason  for  a  man's 
soiling  his  hands  with  a  dishonest  business.  A  man 
cannot  sell  a  proposition  in  which  he  does  not  believe 
and  at  the  same  time  respect  himself  and  hold  the 
esteem  of  his  fellow  men.  Furthermore,  dishonest 
success  must  always  be  counted  a  failure.  A  sales- 
man's honor  is  his  best  selling  asset. 

13.  Confidence. — A  salesman  should  have  confi- 
dence in  himself,  in  his  house  and  in  his  proposition. 


160  SALESMANSHIP 

Before  a  sale  can  be  made,  the  prospect  must  be  im- 
bued with  confidence  in  all  three.  To  inspire  that 
confidence  in  others  the  salesman  must  first  possess  it 
himself.  His  success  will  be  in  direct  proportion  to 
his  estimate  of  his  own  ability,  his  belief  in  the  firm 
that  he  represents,  and  his  faith  in  his  goods. 

A  man  who  makes  a  conscientious  study  of  his  own 
physical,  moral  and  mental  characteristics,  with  a 
firm  determination  to  correct  his  faults  and  to  in- 
crease his  efficiency,  and  who  is  at  all  successful  in 
carrying  out  that  determination,  acquires  a  justifiable 
confidence  in  himself  that  will  enable  him  to  take  up 
any  proposition  with  reasonable  assurance  of  his  abil- 
ity to  carry  it  thru  to  success. 

Careful  distinction  should  be  made,  however,  be- 
tween confidence  and  conceit.  Conceit  is  rooted  in 
ignorance  and  a  misapprehension  of  facts.  Conceit 
thinks  it  can,  but  it  really  cannot.  Confidence  is 
intelligent  faith  based  on  facts.  Confidence  believes 
it  can  and  the  results  demonstrate  the  truth  of  that 
belief.  There  is  little  hope  for  the  salesman  who  does 
not  believe  in  himself.  The  salesman  who  is  easily 
discouraged  when  he  is  turned  aside  will  never  win. 
Half  the  strength  of  the  giant  is  in  the  conviction  that 
he  is  a  giant. 

Confidence  in  the  proposition  is  not  an  easy  thing  to 
maintain.  The  salesman  usually  starts  out  with  abso- 
lute confidence  in  his  line  as  his  principal  selling  asset. 
But  soon,  perhaps,  a  glance  into  a  competitor's  sam- 
ple room  reveals  virtues  in  the  competing  line  that  he 


CHARACTER  AND  CALIBER  161 

does  not  see  in  his  own;  a  few  buyers  inform  him  of 
the  superiority  and  lower  prices  of  still  other  lines — 
and  before  long  we  find  him  writing  in  to  the  house 
about  the  shortcomings  of  his  line  and  the  superiority 
of  those  whose  competition  he  has  to  fight.  Or,  if  he 
is  a  specialty  salesman,  a  few  of  his  prospects  begin  to 
ridicule  the  idea  that  his  proposition  is  a  necessity  for 
them,  and  his  confidence  begins  to  weaken — ever  so 
little  at  first,  but  eventually  sufficiently  to  make  him 
despondent  and  send  him  out  half-whipped  every 
day. 

Many  a  salesman  begins  each  working  day  by  "sell- 
ing himself"  before  he  presents  his  proposition  to  any- 
one else.  Such  a  man  will  go  over  every  selling  ad- 
vantage of  his  goods,  present  his  proposition  to  him- 
self just  as  he  would  to  the  most  obstinate  buyer,  and 
prove  to  himself  absolutely  that  his  proposition  is  the 
best  on  the  market,  that  his  house  is  the  best  in  the 
business,  and  that  no  one  is  so  capable  of  selling  his 
line  as  he  is  himself.  A  preliminary  like  this  re- 
freshes the  salesman's  memory  on  the  essential  points 
of  his  selling  talk,  vitalizes  him  for  the  day's  work  and 
rekindles  confidence  in  himself,  in  his  line  and  in  his 
house. 

Confidence  in  the  house  that  employs  him  is  an  im- 
mensely valuable  asset  to  the  salesman — confidence  in 
his  firm's  financial  condition,  in  its  ability  to  keep  its 
promises,  in  the  character  and  the  ideals  of  the  men  at 
the  head,  and  in  its  desire  to  deal  honestly  with  every- 
body.    Thoro  confidence  increases  the  salesman's  re- 


162  SALESMANSHIP 

spect  and  liking  for  his  employer,  promotes  his  gen- 
eral satisfaction  and  contentment,  gives  him  assurance 
of  solid  backing,  and  adds  dignity  to  his  work.  Fur- 
thermore, if  he  realizes  that  his  firm  is  composed  of 
men  who  have  put  out  his  line  and  put  their  money 
and  reputations  behind  it,  he  will  realize,  despite  the 
opposing  claims  of  other  lines,  that  his  goods  are  right. 

14.  Enthusiasm. — Enthusiasm  is  confidence  in  ac- 
tion; all  great  achievements  in  the  world's  history 
have  been  due  to  enthusiasm  and  without  it  little  of 
importance  has  been  accomplished.  In  the  salesman 
it  is  the  white  heat  that  fuses  all  the  other  essential 
qualities  into  one  effective  whole.  Enthusiasm  needs 
only  direction  to  turn  it  into  success;  and  no  matter 
how  big  the  setback  may  have  been,  any  ground  can 
be  regained  if  enthusiasm  is  not  lost.  Enthusiasm  is 
the  life  of  the  interview.  The  salesman  who  is  truly 
enthusiastic  talks  as  if  he  meant  what  he  said  because 
he  does  mean  everv  word.  He  is  working  for  the 
love  of  the  game.  He  would  rather  be  selling  those 
goods  than  doing  anything  else.  He  is  fired  with  an 
intense  desire  to  impart  his  ardor  to  others.  En- 
thusiasm makes  a  salesman  "talk  shop"  whenever 
there  is  the  slightest  chance  of  effecting  a  sale.  It 
enables  him  to  forget  disappointments  and  failures 
and  to  start  afresh  with  renewed  determination  to 
succeed. 

The  salesman  must  impart  his  enthusiasm  to  the 
prospect  or  there  will  be  no  sale.  He  may  keep  his 
enthusiasm  well  under  control,  but  it  must  be  there. 


CHARACTER  AND  CALIBER  163 

Enthusiasm  is  the  force  that  grips  the  attention  of 
the  customer,  that  impresses  him  with  the  salesman's 
sincerity,  that  makes  him  forget  inhibiting  thoughts, 
and  that  carries  the  presentation  past  all  obstacles  to 
a  successful  consummation. 

Enthusiasm  is  the  quality,  more  than  all  others,  that 
makes  a  salesman  oblivious  to  difficulties,  renders  vital 
his  selling  efforts,  makes  him  optimistic  and  forceful, 
turns  apparent  defeat  into  success,  creates  a  bond  of 
sympathy  between  buyer  and  salesman  and  changes 
prospects'  apathy  to  interest.  It  is  enthusiasm  that 
makes  personal  salesmanship  the  vital  factor  that  it 
is  in  the  distribution  of  the  world's  goods. 

15.  Loyalty. — Closely  associated  with  honesty,  con- 
fidence and  enthusiasm  is  a  fourth  requisite  of  good 
salesmanship,  a  higher  product,  which  develops  when 
men  are  associated  in  groups.  This  essential  is  loy- 
alty. The  salesman  should  be  loyal  to  both  his  house 
and  his  customers;  as  he  stands  between  the  two,  he 
should  look  after  the  best  interests  of  both.  Loj^alty 
involves  something  more  than  this,  however. 

A  certain  concern  which  is  today  firmly  and  suc- 
cessfully established  had  to  ask  its  salesmen,  during 
the  early  days  of  its  existence,  to  be  satisfied  with 
little  or  no  compensation  for  a  period  of  almost  six 
months.  In  other  words,  it  asked  them  to  stay  on 
the  firing  line  selling  goods,  and  practically  support 
themselves  without  the  company's  aid.  Eighty  per 
cent  of  the  men  stayed  and  worked  without  any  loss 
of  confidence  or  enthusiasm  even  under  these  condi- 


164.  SALESMANSHIP 

tions.  That  was  an  example  of  loyalty  at  its  best. 
The  twenty  per  cent  who  quit  were  doubtless  honest 
and  probably  had  confidence  in  the  goods  and  were 
enthusiastic,  but  their  loyalty  was  not  equal  to  the 
severe  test  to  which  it  was  put.  It  would  seem,  then, 
that  there  is  something  which  distinguishes  loyalty 
from  the  other  essential  qualities.  Loyalty  begets 
loyalty,  and  the  salesman  who  is  loyal  to  his  house  and 
to  his  customers  will  find  that  they  are  also  loyal  to 
him. 

16.  Optimism. — There  are  two  kinds  of  optimists — 
the  man  who  absolutely  refuses  to  recognize  that  any- 
thing is  wrong  in  the  world ;  and  the  man  who  recog- 
nizes that  lots  of  things  are  wrong,  but  who  has  a 
cheerful  faith  that  they  will  be  made  right  and  that 
he  can  be  a  power  toward  that  end.  The  first,  ostrich- 
like, hides  his  head  from  surrounding  dangers  and 
tries  to  believe  they  do  not  exist — he  is  a  false  opti- 
mist.    The  second  is  a  true  optimist. 

Lack  of  ambition,  indifference,  laziness  and  satis- 
faction with  ease  and  quiet  are  not  optimism.  To  sit 
still  and  be  content  to  see  other  men  forge  ahead — 
that  is  false  optimism.  To  recognize  that  effort  alone 
can  bring  improvement,  that  progress  is  attained  only 
thru  struggle,  and  to  throw  oneself  into  the  struggle, 
and  to  glory  in  it — that  is  real  optimism. 

True  optimism  will  inspire  the  salesman  with  a  feel- 
ing of  cheerfulness  and  a  determination  always  to 
make  the  best  of  things.  Enthusiasm  presupposes 
optimism  and  optimism  generates  enthusiasm.     Some 


CHARACTER  AND  CALIBER  165 

one  has  said  that  a  green  man  can  learn  to  sell  goods, 
but  a  blue  man  cannot.  The  general  passenger  agent 
of  the  Lackawanna  Railroad  showed  his  appreciation 
of  optimism  and  cheerfulness  when  he  issued  to  his 
ticket  sellers  the  order:     "A  smile  with  every  ticket." 

17.  Imagination. — Two  men  see  a  picture  of  one  of 
the  famous  German  siege  guns.  To  one  it  represents 
just  a  great,  cumbersome  gun.  To  the  mind  of  the 
other  it  conjures  a  picture  of  the  assassination  of  the 
Austrian  Grand  Duke,  ultimatums  exchanged  be- 
tween European  nations,  the  mobilization  of  armies, 
the  German  invasion  of  Belgium,  the  hundred-mile 
battle  line  on  the  French  frontier,  ruined  cathedrals, 
devastated  towns,  thousands  of  homeless  peasants. 
The  first  man  possesses  no  imagination.  The  second 
has  an  imagination  of  great  range  and  intensity.  The 
former  would  not  make  a  salesman ;  the  latter  would 
All  things  must  be  pictured  in  the  mind  before  they 
are  realized,  and  if  the  salesman  would  appeal  to  the 
prospect's  imagination,  he  must  first  be  able  to  pic- 
ture himself  doing  so,  and  then  he  must  be  able  to  get 
a  clear  image  in  his  own  mind  of  the  picture  he  in- 
tends to  paint  for  the  prospect.  If  the  salesman  has 
no  imagination  himself,  he  cannot  hope  to  appeal  to 
the  imagination  of  the  prospect. 

18.  Education. — The  selling  of  a  commodity  that 
appeals  to  highly  cultured,  well-educated  people  calls 
for  a  salesman  of  culture  and  of  some  book  learning. 
The  selling  of  a  technical  appliance  usually  calls  for 
a  technically  trained  mind.     A  man  of  little  or  no 


166  SALESMANSHIP 

polish  and  small  book  learning  may  do  fairly  well  in 
selling  an  ordinary  article,  but  the  salesman  in  any 
line  should  be  an  educated  man.  For  education,  in 
its  broadest  sense,  means  a  knowledge  of  natural 
forces,  of  human  nature,  and  of  things  that  are  going 
on  about  us  in  the  world,  as  well  as  the  power  to 
interpret  them.  Many  a  man  who  has  never  had 
more  than  a  grammar-school  training  possesses  a  true 
education,  in  this  sense  of  the  word.  A  person  who 
will  seriously  consider  the  qualifications  that  have  been 
enumerated  in  this  chapter,  and  who  succeeds  in  ac- 
quiring a  reasonable  number  of  them  will  have  re- 
ceived a  liberal  education  in  the  process,  even  tho  he 
may  have  had  little  previous  schooling. 

19.  Voice. — If  the  salesman  has  a  strident  voice 
and  a  harsh  manner  the  prospect  will  probably  be 
prejudiced  against  him,  while  a  man  of  fine  sensibil- 
ities will  certainly  be  repelled.  A  clear,  full,  soothing 
voice  will  do  much  to  predispose  the  prospect  in  favor 
of  the  salesman.  No  man  who  must  speak  a  great 
deal  should  neglect  the  cultivation  of  his  voice.  He 
should  be  particularly  careful  to  keep  it,  if  possible,  in 
a  pleasantly  low  range. 

There  are  many  methods  for  training  and  cultivat- 
ing the  voice.  One  that  is  known  to  produce  satisfac- 
tory results  is  to  read  poems  aloud.  Another  is  to 
take  lessons  from  a  vocal  instructor.  The  salesman 
should  be  particularly  careful  to  cultivate  a  sympa- 
thetic tone  of  voice.  He  should  learn  to  direct  the 
tone  forward  toward  the  teeth  and  lips,  at  the  same 


CHARACTER  AND  CALIBER  167 

time  allowing  it  to  pass  naturally  thru  the  nasal 
passages.  Such  tone-production  is  conducive  to  a 
good  "carrying  quality,"  and  also  is  a  preventive  of 
what  is  known  as  "speaker's  throat,"  which  results 
from  straining  the  voice.  The  large  amount  of 
speaking  required  of  the  salesman  causes  a  dry  throat 
and  a  rasping  tone  unless  proper  care  is  taken. 

20.  Appearance. — It  goes  without  saying  that  a 
salesman  should  always  be  well  dressed  and  well 
gi'oomed.  Slovenliness  prejudices  a  prospect  against 
him  and  his  proposition.  His  clothing  should  be 
fresh  pressed  and  his  linen  spotless.  His  shoes 
should  be  of  the  best,  with  straight  heels,  and  should 
be  kept  well  shined.  The  salesman  must  be  carefuld 
of  his  teeth,  his  hair  and  his  finger  nails,  and  he  should 
never  appear  before  a  prospect  with  a  day's  growth  of 
beard  on  his  face. 

The  keynote  of  the  salesman's  dress  should  be  unob^ 
trusiveness.  Any  exaggeration  in  his  costume  is 
detrimental  to  his  obtaining  the  best  results.  Just  as 
the  finest  French  plate-glass  is  the  kind  that  is  en- 
tirely unobtrusive  to  the  eye,  so  the  best  dressed  man 
is  he  whose  apparel  attracts  no  attention  to  itself. 

21.  Personality. — Personality  is  that  indefinable 
something  which  makes  the  presence  of  one  man  wel- 
come and  the  presence  of  another  unwelcome.  Com^ 
bined  with  sympathy,  and  the  ability  to  see  the  other 
fellow's  point  of  view,  it  is  the  prime  factor  in  the 
quick  creation  of  confidence.  Personality  is  that 
quality  which  definitely  characterizes  a  person  and 


168  SALESMANSHIP 

distinguishes  him  from  another,  not  by  his  stature,  or 
by  the  way  his  features  are  molded,  but  by  his  expres- 
sion, his  manner  and  his  actions.  Personahty  in- 
cludes poise,  that  elusive  characteristic  which  is  more 
than  mere  calm  or  assurance,  and  which  enables  its 
possessor  to  appear  to  advantage,  and  to  be  at  ease 
under  any  circumstances. 

Personality,  as  such,  cannot  be  acquired  apart  from 
those  elements  of  which  it  is  composed.  Personality 
is  the  sum  total  of  one's  mentality,  education,  habits 
of  thought  and  experience. 

22.  Self-analysis  and  improvement. — The  sales- 
man should  possess  the  ability  to  review  carefully  his 
work  at  the  close  of  each  day,  and  decide  just  where 
and  how  he  has  been  weaker  than  he  should  have  been. 
There  is  some  reason  for  the  loss  of  every  sale.  The 
salesman  may  not  be  at  fault,  but  it  is  safer  for  him 
to  assume  that  he  is  and  to  endeavor  to  put  his  finger 
upon  his  weakness.  Such  a  practice  will  foster  in  him 
the  habit  of  holding  himself  strictly  accountable  for 
errors.  He  should  also  at  the  same  time  review  the 
essential  qualifications  of  a  salesman  and  decide  in 
which  of  them  he  is  lacking.  During  this  period  of 
introspection,  the  salesman  should  be  thoroly  honest 
with  himself.  The  man  who  has  too  much  self-conceit 
to  admit  his  mistake  when  he  is  at  fault,  cannot  profit- 
ably perform  this  task  of  introspection.  Such  a  man 
is  as  useless  in  selling  as  in  any  other  occupation. 
The  salesman  can  develop  only  by  earnestly  striving 
to  discover  and  eliminate  his  negative  qualities,  while 


CHARACTER  AND  CALIBER  169 

at  the  same  time  he  makes  every  effort  to  strengthen 
his  positive  ones.  A  prominent  New  York  firm  has 
devised  a  self -analysis  chart — produced  below — which 
was  prepared  for  the  special  benefit  of  those  salesmen 
who  wish  to  carry  on  a  particularly  complete  and 
systematic  introspection  along  the  lines  that  have  been 
suggested. 

SELF-ANALYSIS  CHART 

Analyze  yourself  by  making  your  own  standing  with  regard  to  each  of 
the  qualities  listed  below.     For  convenience  use  the  following  scale: 

1.     Nearly  perfect. 

3.  Good. 

(  3.  Above  the  average. 

4.  Average. 

5.  Below  the  average. 

6.  Deficient. 

7.  Almost  wholly  lacking. 

Obviously  the  qualities  listed  are  not  all  equally  important.  Their 
relative  importance  depends,  in  part,  on  the  work  you  are  doing  or  for 
which  you  are  l)eing  considered. 

Your  analysis,  when  completed,  should  show  a  few  "I's,"  a  large  num- 
ber of  "2's"  and  "3's,"  a  smaller  number  of  "4's,"  very  few  "5's,"  and  no 
**6's"  or  "7s."  Remember  that  one  or  two  striking  defects,  no  matter  how 
excellent  a  man's  other  qualities  may  be,  are  often  enough  to  disqualify 
him  for  a  high  grade  of  duties.  You  should  endeavor  as  quickly  as  pos- 
sible to  remove  the  "5's,"  "6's"  and  "7's''  from  your  analysis. 

L    Physical  Qualities. 

(a)  Chiefly  inherent— subject,  however,  to  some  cultivation. 

1.  Proper  size  and  structure  of  body 

2.  Correct  conformation  of  face  and  head  

3.  Physical   vitality    

4.  Correct  age   (depending  on  position) 

(b)  Chiefly  acquired  and  subject  to  cultivation  

5.  General  good  health   

6.  Erect  carriage   

7.  Impressive  and  pleasing  facial  expression  

8.  Pleasing  voice  and  enunciation   

9.  Personal    neatness    

10.  Appropriate  dress  and  pleasing  appearance  


170  SALESMANSHIP 

11.  Bodily  control  (e.  g.,  ability  to  sit  quietly 
and  absence  of  nervousness) 

12.  Quickness  of  bodily  movements    

II.    Mental  Qualities. 

(a)  Chiefly  inherent. 

13.  Quickness  of  thought   

14.  Imagination      

15.  Good  memory   

16.  Reasoning    ability    

(b)  Chiefly  acquired. 

17.  Good  elementary  education   

18.  Higher    general   education    

19.  Special  education  in   business    

20.  Special  education  in  salesmanship   

21.  Habits  of  thought  and  study 

22.  Ofl5ce   experience    

23.  Selling  experience    

24.  Executive   experience    

25.  Correct  conception  of  the  proposition  .  . . . 

26.  Detailed  knowledge  of  the  proposition  . . . 

27.  Accuracy  of  observation   

28.  Concentration     

29.  Sound   j  udgment    

30.  Resourcefulness     

31.  Ability  to  talk  well    

32.  Ability  to  write  well    

33.  Organizing  ability    

34.  Attention  to  details 

35.  Habits  of  punctuality   

36.  Ability  to  develop   

37.  Breadth  of  view    

38.  Fair-mindedness     

III.    Temperamental  Qualities. 

(a)  Chiefly  inherent. 

39.  Will    power    

40.  Energy    

41.  Liking  for  your  work  , 

(b)  Chiefly  acquired. 

48.    Courtesy     

43.  Tact    

44.  Truthfulness    

46.    Integrity   

46.  Loyalty     

47.  Enthiisiasm    

48.  Industry    


CHARACTER  AND  CALIBER  171 

49.  Self-control 

50.  Self-confidence    

51.  Stability    

52.  Courage     

53.  Aggressiveness    

54.  Ambition     

55.  Sincerity     

56.  Cheerfulness     

57.  Good  business  habits  

58.  Good  personal  habits   

59.  Poise     

60.  Helpfulness    

61.  Initiative 

62.  Discretion     

63.  Willingness  to  accept  suggestions    

64.  Power  to  dominate    

65.  Persuasiveness 

66.  Fixity  of  purpose    

67.  Sympathy    

REVIEW 

Discuss  the 'development  of  character  and  caliber  as  applied 
to  selling  and  to  business  success  generally. 

Have  you  the  habits  of  thought,  study  and  work.'' 

Go  over  this  chapter  again,  deciding  which  characteristics 
you  possess,  which  ones  you  lack,  and  which  of  those  you  have 
can  be  further  developed.  Carefully  note  any  negative  charac- 
teristics you  may  discover  and  plan  to  eradicate  them. 

Mark  yourself  on  the  self-analysis  chart  given,  actually 
putting  the  figures  and  totals  down.  Then  in  two  or  three 
months  you  may  mark  yourself  again,  noting  specific  improve- 
ments and  improvement  in  the  total. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  SALESMAN'S  DUTIES  AXD  RESPONSI- 
BILITIES 

1.  A  salesman's  responsibility. — The  salesman  on 
the  road  is,  to  a  great  extent,  a  business  executive  and, 
as  such,  is  master  of  his  own  time.  While  a  sales  m^an- 
ager  may  be  able  to  check  him  up  by  the  salesnictn's 
reports,  by  the  volume  of  his  business  and  by  previous 
records  in  the  territory,  it  is  quite  possible  for  the 
salesman,  if  he  will,  to  pass  muster  without  giving  his 
best  efforts  to  his  house.  Probably  nothing  more 
sharply  separates  the  subordinate  from  the  executive 
than  the  fact  that  the  average  subordinate  has  an  in- 
clination to  shirk  and  that  he  needs  supervision,  while 
the  average  executive  has  a  natural  inclination  to  put 
forth  his  best  efforts  and  is  not  likely  to  quit  at  the 
first  opportunity.  The  salesman  should  be  proud  of 
being  in  the  executive  class  and  should  shoulder  cheer- 
fully the  responsibility  that  his  position  entails.  He 
is  on  his  honor;  and  be  it  known  that  the  vast  majority 
of  salesmen,  tho  under  the  constant  temptation  to  loaf 
on  the  job,  do  shoulder  their  responsibility  cheerfully 
and  warrant  the  trust  that  is  placed  in  them. 

Very  often  a  salesman  who  is  working  on  a  straight- 
commission  basis  feels  that  he  has  a  perfect  right  to 

172 


THE  SALESMAN'S  DUTIES  173 

stop  work  for  a  day,  or  even  more,  if  he  so  desires. 
"My  compensation  stops  when  I  stop,"  he  argues;  "if 
I  am  satisfied  why  should  the  house  kick?"  But  com- 
mission men  are  coming  more  and  more  to  reahze  that 
while  they  may  have  a  legal  right  to  act  on  this  theory, 
they  certainly  have  no  moral  right  to  do  so.  For  the 
house,  in  expectation  of  the  business  that  they  are 
presumably  going  to  bring  in  by  working  every  day, 
has  provided  certain  facilities  in  the  factory  for  the 
production  of  the  commodity  sold  and  made  definite 
arrangements  in  the  office  for  the  handling  of  the 
salesman's  orders.  If  the  anticipated  number  of  or- 
ders does  not  come  in,  the  expenses  are  not  automatic- 
ally reduced;  thej^  go  on  about  the  same  as  before. 
Consequently,  the  cost  of  handling  the  individual  or- 
der is  higher  and  the  net  profit  is  reduced.  If  any 
considerable  number  of  the  sales  force  took  it  into 
their  heads  to  rest  up  for  a  couple  of  days,  it  is  quite 
possible  that  the  house  would  suffer  an  appreciable 
loss.  Commission  men  are  beginning  to  see  things  in 
this  light  and  to  assume  the  responsibility. 

In  this  connection,  Hugh  Chalmers  tells  of  the 
standard  he  set  for  himself  when  he  was  selling  on 
straight  commission.  He  had  to  pay  his  own  ex- 
penses, of  course,  so  he  always  set  out  to  earn  the  en- 
tire month's  expenses  during  the  first  twelve  days. 
This  method  provided  an  incentive  to  hustle  the  first 
part  of  the  month  so  as  not  to  run  over  the  allotted 
time  for  covering  expenses.  AVhenever  he  kept  within 
his  time-limit,  his  commission  during  the  rest  of  the 

VI— 13 


174.  SALESMANSHIP 

month  was  clear  profit.  The  reahzation  of  this  fact 
was  an  incentive  to  hustle  during  the  last  half  of  the 
month  in  order  that  the  month's  profits  might  be  as 
large  as  possible.  On  the  last  day  of  each  month  he 
always  strove  to  close  a  large  volume  of  business,  since 
every  sale  that  was  closed  counted  on  the  profits  of 
that  month,  whereas,  if  a  sale  were  delayed  a  day,  the 
commission  had  to  go  toward  the  expenses  of  the  next 
month.  There  is  a  fascination  in  such  a  method. 
The  love  of  playing  a  game  is  inherent  in  all  of  us,  and 
the  salesman  who  would  work  at  maximum  efficiency 
would  do  well  to  set  for  himself  some  such  standard 
as  Mr.  Chalmers'  and  play  up  to  it. 

2.  Salesman  s  time  and  its  use  in  business. — The 
salesman  may  well  apply  some  of  the  principles  of 
efficient  management  to  his  selling  work.  There  is  no 
other  phase  of  business  in  which  there  is  so  much  waste 
motion  as  there  is  in  selling.  Materials  used  in  manu- 
facturing are  routed  thru  the  factory.  The  progress 
of  the  work  is  systematic  and  direct.  The  material 
does  not  zigzag  back  and  forth  in  the  plant  in  an  aim- 
less fashion  from  one  operation  to  another,  and  it  does 
not  travel  half  a  mile  between  one  department  and  an- 
other. If  such  were  the  case,  the  cost  of  manufacture 
would  doubtless  be  doubled  or  trebled. 

The  salesman  might  well  ask  himself  every  day 
whether  his  work  is  properly  routed,  and  if  not,  what 
it  is  costing  him  to  manufacture  his  commodity,  the 
sale.  Has  he  routed  his  trips  between  towns  so  as  to 
reduce  to  a  minimum  the  time  that  must  be  lost  on 


THE  SALESMAN'S  DUTIES  175 

trains  and  in  waiting  over  for  connections?  Are  his 
calls  arranged  so  that  he  can  travel  in  a  straight  line? 
Or  must  he  zigzag  back  and  forth  thru  town,  now  at 
one  end  and  now  at  the  other — chasing  isolated  pros- 
pects at  each  end  ?  Has  he  selected  prospects  who  are 
in  the  same  neighborhood  ?  Or  is  he  wasting  valuable 
presentation-making  time  and  energy  covering  long 
distances  after  each  interview? 

Let  us  look  first  at  his  routing  between  towns. 
This  is  not  of  great  importance  unless,  of  course,  the 
salesman  is  making  towns  at  the  rate  of  more  than  one 
a  day.  The  route  should  be  laid  out  as  far  as  possible 
in  a  straight  line.  Peculiar  train  schedules,  however, 
may  prevent  the  advantageous  arrangement  of  a 
straight  route  and  it  may  be  well  to  skip  a  town  and 
double  back.  A  new  salesman  will  always  find  men 
who  have  been  covering  the  route  for  some  time  and 
who  know  all  the  tricks  that  may  be  played  with  the 
time-table. 

3.  Organizing  a  town. — Let  us  look  now  at  the 
planning  of  the  work  within  a  town.  We  shall  as- 
sume that  the  salesman  has  never  visited  the  town. 
His  first  duty  will  be  to  get  as  good  a  knowledge  of 
the  town  as  is  possible  in  the  time  which  he  can  spare. 
If  his  proposition  is  such  that  he  will  be  in  town  for  a 
week  or  more,  it  may  pay  him  to  spend  a  half-day,  or 
in  some  cases  a  whole  day,  in  merely  looking  about  the 
town  and  gauging  its  possibilities. 

The  second  step  will  be  to  make  a  card  list  of  all 
possible  prospects.     Names  can  be  secured  from  the 


176  SALESMANSHIP 

general  directory  or  from  the  telephone  directory,  or 
from  such  other  sources  as  the  nature  of  the  particular 
business  may  suggest.  Quite  possibly  the  salesman's 
house  may  have  provided  him  with  prospect  cards,  but 
no  matter  how  thoroly  he  may  be  equipped  in  this 
way,  it  is  probable  that  some  names  will  have  been  left 
out,  and  the  salesman  should  be  careful  to  see  that  they 
are  added  to  his  list.  If  the  salesman  has  visited  the 
town  previously,  of  course  a  good  deal  of  this  work 
will  have  been  done,  and  if  he  carries  a  line  that  en- 
ables him  to  sell  to  the  same  customers  over  and  over 
again,  he  probably  will  have  a  set  of  data  cards  that 
will  give  him  full  information. 

The  salesman  will  find  much  valuable  information 
and,  in  the  case  of  some  lines,  the  names  of  possible 
prospects  in  the  local  papers.  He  should  make  it  a 
point  to  read  these  papers  if  he  intends  to  stay  in  the 
town  any  length  of  time  or  if  he  intends  to  revisit  it  at 
frequent  intervals.  One  of  the  best  specialty  sales- 
men in  the  country  makes  it  a  point  always  to  send  for 
the  town  papers  for  the  past  week  just  as  soon  as  he 
arrives  at  the  hotel. 

The  rule  of  routing  calls  in  a  straight  line  cannot 
alwaj's  be  strictly  followed,  for  there  may  be  more  im- 
portant things  to  be  taken  into  consideration.  For 
example,  it  might  be  very  important  for  a  specialty 
salesman  to  see  two  or  three  of  his  most  prominent 
prospects  the  very  first  thing,  irrespective  of  their  lo- 
cation in  the  town.  jNIoreover,  during  his  stay  he  will, 
of  course,  call  upon  prospects  that  have  been  recom- 


THE  SALESMAN'S  DUTIES  177 

mended  to  him  by  customers  rather  than  those  who  are 
most  accessible,  but  to  whom  he  has  no  introduction. 
Another  exception  to  the  rule  of  routing  calls  in  a 
straight  line,  is  the  case  of  the  staple  salesman  who 
wishes  to  start  off  with  the  most  progressive  store  and 
work  down.  In  any  case,  of  course,  it  is  advisable  to 
plan  the  day's  work  carefully. 

4.  Planning  the  day's  tcork. — The  work  for  the  day 
is  planned  with  the  aid  of  a  map  of  the  town.  The 
number  of  prospects  that  can  be  visited  will  depend  on 
the  number  of  presentations  of  the  particular  propo- 
sition that  can  be  made  in  a  day,  and  on  the  pro- 
portion of  prospects  who,  for  one  reason  or  another, 
cannot  be  seen.  It  is  better  to  plan  too  many  calls 
than  too  few,  for  if  the  salesman  plans  an  insufficient 
number  he  is  likely  not  to  have  enough  calls  for  a  day's 
work.  JNIany  salesmen  make  it  a  point  to  spend  some 
time  on  Sunday  planning  their  work  for  the  coming 
week.  Then  each  evening  they  select  from  the  week's 
prospects  those  that  they  intend  to  see  the  next 
day. 

Immediately  after  the  close  of  the  day's  field  work, 
the  salesman  should  sit  down  and  prepare  the  day's 
orders  for  forwarding.  Then,  while  events  are  still 
fresh  in  his  mind,  he  should  make  out  his  daily  report, 
at  the  same  time  carefully  reviewing  the  day's  work 
and  noting  the  mistakes  that  he  has  made.  It  is  of 
extreme  importance  that  this  period  of  retrospection 
come  as  soon  as  the  salesman  has  made  his  last  call, 
rather  than  later  when  his  ardor  has  cooled  and  he  has 


178  SALESMANSHIP 

forgotten  some  of  the  finer  points  of  the  day's  hap- 
penings. 

5.  Preparing  for  the  next  day. — Immediately  after 
the  orders  have  been  prepared  and  any  mistakes  of  the 
day  have  been  noted,  the  next  day's  work  should  be 
laid  out.  Naturally  this  cannot  be  done  while  a  man 
is  in  the  field.  Moreover,  if  the  planning  is  postponed 
the  enjoyment  of  the  evening's  recreation  is  likely  to 
be  marred  because  the  salesman  cannot  throw  off  the 
feeling  that  there  is  unfinished  business  on  his  mind. 
When  he  finally  gets  at  it,  at  eleven  o'clock  or  later, 
he  is  cold  toward  his  proposition  and  his  energy  is  at 
a  low  ebb.  In  other  words,  he  has  allowed  his  mind 
to  slip  out  of  the  selling  groove  and  he  finds  it  hard 
to  bring  it  back. 

Possibly  the  loss  would  not  be  serious  if  he  should 
actually  sit  down  at  eleven  o'clock  and  do  the  plan- 
ning, but  usually  ne  does  not.  He  generally  decides 
that  it  is  too  late  that  night  to  make  out  his  report  and 
that  he  will  get  up  an  hour  earlier  in  the  morning  and 
do  it.  He  does  not  do  this,  however,  and  conse- 
quently he  starts  a  day  that  is  likely  to  be  unproduc- 
tive. Breakfast  is  eaten  hurriedly  and  with  a  nervous 
sense  of  something  extra  to  do  that  morning — a  con- 
dition that  is  sure  to  prevent  proper  digestion.  Then 
the  salesman  hastily  selects  the  names  of  three  or  four 
prospects  and  hurries  out  half-prepared. 

6.  Percentage  of  efficiency. — Mention  has  been 
made  of  the  wasting  of  valuable  time  and  energy  that 
should  go  into  presentations,  in  covering  long  dis- 


THE  SALESMAN'S  DUTIES  179 

tances  between  interviews.  The  salesman  might  well 
make  it  a  practice  during  the  period  of  retrospection 
following  the  day's  work,  to  set  down  the  number  of 
hours  spent  in  the  field  and  divide  it  into  the  number 
of  hours  spent  actually  interviewing  prospects.  He 
would  find  the  percentage  of  efficiency  startlingly  low, 
possibly  not  higher  than  thirty  or  forty  per  cent. 
That  would  mean  that  sixty  or  seventy  per  cent  of 
the  entire  time  spent  in  the  field  was  spent  in  travel- 
ing from  one  prospect  to  another,  or  in  waiting  in 
outer  offices.  Careful  planning  and  careful  watching 
on  the  part  of  the  salesman  will  do  much  to  improve 
this  percentage.  One  hundred  per  cent  is,  of  course, 
impossible  of  attainment,  but  conscientious,  energetic 
salesmen  should  be  able  to  reach  an  efficiency  of  sixty 
to  seventy-five  per  cent. 

7.  Getting  in  a  full  day's  work. — The  salesman 
cannot  afford  to  spend  his  time  cataloging  the  hours 
when  it  may  be  inconvenient  for  buyers  to  see  him. 
If  he  happens  to  know  the  prospect's  habits,  it  will, 
of  course,  be  advantageous  for  him  to  call  at  the  time 
that  is  convenient  for  the  prospect.  In  other  cases 
he  must  take  his  chance,  and  if  he  does  not  obtain  an 
interview,  he  should  lose  no  time  in  passing  on  to  the 
next  prospect.  This  phase  of  the  subject  is  well  dis- 
cussed in  a  little  message  from  a  sales  manager  to  his 
men  on  the  road: 

There  are  four  begging  little  devils  that  haunt  our  sales- 
men.    Their  food  is  prospect-seeing  time. 

One  hungry  little  devil  is  about  o'  mornings.     He  mounts 


180  SALESMANSHIP 

the  shoulder  of  the  Peerless  One  and  whispers :  "No  use  try- 
ing to  see  your  first  man  before  nine-tliirty — got  to  give  him 
time  to  open  his  mail."  And  if  you  so  much  as  waver  for  an 
instant,  he  straightway  devours  the  front-end  of  your  pre- 
cious morning. 

The  next  little  begging  devil's  idea  of  a  dainty  morsel  is  a 
toothsome  mid-day.  "It  is  now  a  quarter  to  twelve,"  he 
adroitly  starts.  "If  you  see  a  man  now  he  is  likely  to  go  to 
lunch  any  minute  and  he'll  hustle  you  thru  to  get  rid  of  you 
and  get  out."  If  you  agree  to  this  proposition,  he  waits 
until  he  gets  you  comfortably  seated  at  luncheon,  or  in  a 
hotel  lobby,  and  then  suggests :  "You  can't  see  him  before 
two  o'clock  now — they  won't  be  back  from  lunch."  And  be- 
fore your  very  eyes  he  gnaws  two  and  one  quarter  perfectly 
good  hours  right  out  of  the  middle  of  your  priceless  day. 
And  maybe,  too,  he  nibbles  off  the  half-hour  between  two  and 
two-thirt}^,  by  way  of  dessert,  before  l^e  leaves. 

At  the  first  suspicion  of  a  shadow  that  crosses  the  after- 
noon light  of  these  autumn  days,  a  third  little  devil,  lean  and 
ravenous,  accosts  you.  "It  is  getting  dark,"  he  mournfully 
chants,  "3'ou  can't  start  a  new  talk  now.  It's  getting  dark. 
Your  man  won't  be  in  a  mood  to  listen."  And  before  you 
know  it,  he  has  gobbled  the  entire  end  off  your  afternoon. 

Before  these  three  little  begging  devils  are  satisfied,  your 
working  hours  are  from  twelve  to  one,  with  an  hour  for  lunch, 
or  rather,  from  twelve  to  two,  with  two  hours  for  lunch ! 

The  fourth  little  devil  feeds  only  after  long  intervals, 
after  the  manner  of  a  snake ;  and  then,  like  a  snake,  he  gorges 
himself.  His  food  is  Saturdays.  "You  can't  do  anything 
on  Saturdays,"  he  says.  "It's  a  short  day  and  they're  too 
busy  to  listen."  And  so,  without  even  allowing  you  to  start 
out,  he  swallows  your  Saturday  whole. 

And  the  terrible  part  of  it  is  that  they're  such  plausible 
little  devils. 

If  you  don't  watch  out  you'll  find  yourself  accepting  their 
say-so  as  the  gospel  truth.  And  they  can  find  for  you  every 
single  hour  of  the  day  a  sepmingly  good  reason  why  you 
should  not  work  just  then. 


THE  SALESMAN'S  DUTIES  181 

But  they're  liars — every  one. 

If  you  want  to  prove  it,  just  sally  forth  some  bright  morn- 
ing and  find  out  how  many  men  get  down  to  their  offices 
at  eight  or  eight-thirty.  Progressive  business  men  cannot 
transact  their  business  in  a  few  fag  ends  of  hours  in  a  da\', 
any  more  than  you  can.  And  if  a  man  is  at  his  office  at  eight 
or  eight-thirty  in  the  morning,  it's  the  best  indication  in  the 
world  that  he's  a  good  prospect  for  you.  He's  a  hustler. 
He's  a  "get  there"  man. 

And  he  can  be  turned  aside  from  his  mail  by  something 
that  interests  him,  as  well  as  he  can  be  turned  aside  from  any- 
thing else — and  furthermore,  progressive  business  men  are 
not  cluttering  themselves  up  these  days  with  the  opening  of 
a  routine  mail. 

Then  just  try  going  after  a  few  prosjsects  between  twelve 
and  two.  You  may  find  a  man  or  two  of  them  out,  of  course. 
But  all  3^ou  have  to  do  in  that  event  is  to  go  on  to  the  next 
fellow.  If  you  find  him  in,  it  will  prove  a  splendid  time  for 
a  thoro  and  uninterrupted  presentation.  A  man  is  always 
ready,  between  twelve  and  two,  to  relax  and  let  up  on  his 
work  if  an  excuse  to  do  so  is  presented.  And  your  propo- 
sition is  a  grand  little  excuse.  Callers  between  twelve  and 
two  are  few  and  far  between,  and  your  chances  of  not  being 
interrupted  are  much  better  than  at  any  other  time  of  the 
da3\ 

You  can  see  them  before  two.  If  you  found  a  man  out 
between  twelve  and  one  o'clock  you  may  be  sure  that  3^ou 
will  find  him  in  between  one  and  two.  And  you'll  be  finding 
him  after  he's  had  a  good  comfortable  meal  and  is  in  a  mood 
to  sit  back,  comfort  himself  with  his  after-dinner  cigar  and 
listen. 

That  dusk  argument  needs  no  disproving.  A  man  who  has 
been  busy  in  his  office  all  day — and  the  men  to  whom  you  will 
sell  are  all  busy  men — doesn't  know  Avhether  it's  dark  or  light 
outside.  And  the  chances  are  that  he  has  been  using 
artificial  light  all  da}^,  anyhow.  As  for  that  "Saturday" 
devil,  he  hasn't  a  leg  to  stand  on.  Just  you  go  out  and 
try  it. 


182  SALESMANSHIP 

The  salesman  should  so  plan  his  work  that  in  the 
morning  he  can  pick  up  his  equipment  and  without 
any  delay  go  to  his  first  prospect.  No  detail  work 
should  be  left  over  from  the  night  before  to  sap  his 
morning  energy.  He  should  get  out  early  while  his 
brain  is  fresh  and  his  prospect  is  still  in  good  trim 
from  a  night's  rest.  A  salesman  can  always  talk  more 
intelligently  right  after  a  good  night's  sleep  than  he 
can  later  in  the  day,  after  he  has  become  partly 
fagged.  The  man  who  sees  his  first  prospect  at  eight- 
thirty  very  often  has  his  sales  for  the  day  started  at 
nine  o'clock. 

8.  Rainy  day  work. — Generally  speaking,  there  is 
no  reason  why  a  salesman  should  be  idle  on  rainy  days. 
A  rainy  day  is  a  good  day  for  business  if  the  salesman 
himself  feels  right.  On  such  a  day  the  prospect  sits 
at  his  desk  not  inclined  to  do  a  great  deal,  looks  out 
at  the  rain  and  feels  glad  he  does  not  have  to  be  out 
in  it.  It  is  the  kind  of  day  when  he  does  not  feel  busy 
and  when  he  is  in  the  mood  to  give  a  caller  all  the  time 
that  the  latter  wishes,  and  when  there  are  not  many 
callers  to  take  his  time.  On  a  rainy  day  a  retailer  is 
a  promising  prospect,  for  it  is  unlikely  that  he  will 
be  much  interrupted  by  customers.  And  in  bad 
weather,  specialty  men  can  often  arrange  all  their  calls 
in  one  office-building  and  get  their  business  dry-shod. 

9.  Law  of  averages. — The  salesman  should  keep 
clearly  in  mind  the  fact  that  it  is  not  always  desirable 
to  land  an  order  no  matter  how  long  it  takes.  He 
must  get  orders  quickly,  for  only  in  that  way  can  he 


THE  SALESMAN'S  DUTIES  183 

do  a  satisfactory  volume  of  business.  A  new  sales- 
man on  a  specialty  proposition,  speaking  to  the  or- 
ganization's star  salesman  one  day,  said:  "I've  been 
following  your  advice  of  finding  out  all  about  my  man 
before  going  to  see  him,  planning  my  talk  so  that  it 
will  fit  him  exactly,  and  not  going  to  see  him  unless  I 
feel  absolutely  fit.  The  method  works  fine.  Wliy, 
I  talked  to  only  six  people  all  last  week  and  I  landed 
two  of  them.  That  means  that  my  interviews  were 
thirty-three  and  one-third  per  cent  successful."  The 
star  salesman  said  afterward  that  he  sat  back  and 
wondered  whether  he  was  really  responsible  for  that 
attitude.  He  certainly  had  not  intended  to  advocate 
the  use  of  any  part  of  the  time  which  the  salesman 
could  devote  to  seeing  prospects,  for  any  other  pur- 
pose. 

It  is,  of  course,  desirable  that  a  large  proportion  of 
the  interviews  should  produce  sales,  but  the  work  of 
acquiring  the  necessary  ability  should  be  done  by 
lamplight.  It  should  always  be  remembered  that 
the  ability  to  close  a  great  many  sales  is  a  good  sup- 
plement to  hard  work,  but  not  a  substitute  for  it. 
The  day  should  be  devoted  entirely  to  seeing  pros- 
pects. If  that  is  done,  altho  the  number  of  sales  in 
proportion  to  the  number  of  interviews  may  be  small, 
still  the  number  of  sales  will  be  considerable,  and  the 
salesman's  income  will  be  large. 

The  law  of  averages  as  the  salesman  understands  it, 
is,  that  out  of  a  given  number  of  people  seen,  a  fairly 
definite  proportion  will  ordinarily  buy.     The  more 


184  SALESMANSHIP 

people  seen,  therefore,  the  larger  the  volume  of  busi- 
ness. Even  if  the  proportion  decreases,  the  actual 
results  of  seeing  a  large  number  of  people  will  be 
larger.  To  close  a  sale  in  five  cases  out  of  fifty  in  a 
week  gives  the  commission  man  two  and  one-half  times 
as  much  as  if  he  closed  two  out  of  six  cases.  Time — 
hours,  minutes,  seconds — is  one  of  the  salesman's 
greatest  assets.  The  way  for  the  salesman  to  make 
that  asset  pay  cash  dividends  is  to  see  every  prospect 
he  possibly  can,  every  day  in  the  week. 

The  salesman  owes  this  kind  of  hard  work  not  only 
to  himself  but  also  to  his  house.  The  idea  that  some 
salesmen  have  of  being  busy  is  shown  by  their  trying 
to  do  on  the  last  day  of  the  week  the  things  that  they 
have  neglected  during  the  other  five.  A  house  is  en- 
titled to  a  certain  volume  of  business  from  a  territoi-y 
each  year.  If  that  business  is  not  secured  this  year, 
the  salesman  cannot  make  up  for  it  next  year,  for  the 
house  would  be  entitled  to  the  next  year's  business  in 
any  case.  In  the  same  way,  the  salesman  has  no  right 
to  waste  time  four  days  of  the  week  and  try  to  make  it 
up  the  other  two,  for  the  house  is  entitled  to  his  best 
efforts  all  six  days. 

10.  Salesman  s  attitude  toward  territory. — Pros- 
pects are  very  much  the  same  the  world  over,  and 
consequently  one  territory  is  not  so  different  in  possi- 
bilities from  another.  The  salesman  should  resist  the 
temptation  to  think  that  his  territory  is  an  unusually 
difficult  one  to  work,  and  that  there  are  much  better 
territories  in  other  parts  of  the  country.     Most  top- 


THE  SALESMAN'S  DUTIES  185 

notch  salesmen  agree  that  success  in  seUing  is  nine- 
tenths  a  question  of  the  salesman  and  one-tenth  a 
question  of  the  territory. 

The  salesman  should  realize  that  the  territory  is  an 
asset  of  the  house.  He  should  work  it  intensively  and 
systematically,  and  he  should  never  admit  defeat  in 
any  town.  The  towns  that  are  most  difficult  to  open 
up  are  often  the  best  fields,  for  they  have  in  many 
cases  been  given  up  in  disgust  bj^  the  weaker  salesmen ; 
consequently  when  better  salesmen  come  they  reap  a 
big  harvest.  It  is  astonishing  how  many  prospects 
in  any  town  are  "croakers" ;  they  seem  to  take  pleasure 
in  telling  salesmen  that  the  place  is  dead  and  that 
other  salesmen  did  no  business  there.  A  salesman 
can  get  plenty  of  that  kind  of  advice  in  any  town  in  the 
country,  and  of  course  if  he  heeded  it  he  would  do 
no  business  at  all.  He  should  bear  in  mind  that  his 
liouse  has  produced  a  desirable  article,  that  it  can  be 
sold,  and  that  it  is  his  work  to  sell  it.  These  "croak- 
ers" are  not  favorable  prospects,  it  is  true ;  but  fortu- 
nately there  are  plenty  of  other  people  in  the  town — 
they  say  less  and  do  more,  and  become  prosperous. 
They  are  the  likely  prospects. 

11.  Salesman  s  time  and  its  use  outside  of  business 
] tours. — The  modern  business  world  has  pretty  gener- 
ally abandoned  the  idea  that  there  is  no  connection  be- 
tween what  a  man  does  at  eleven  o'clock  at  night  and 
what  he  does  at  eleven  o'clock  the  next  morning.  The 
old-time  hit-or-miss  sales  management  concerned  it- 
self little  with  this  problem.     If  the  salesman  turned 


186  SALESMANSHIP 

in  a  fair  number  of  sales,  his  personal  faults  and  ex- 
cesses were  condoned.  That  is  not  the  attitude  of  the 
sales  manager  of  today.  He  is  not  satisfied  with  only 
a  part  of  the  salesman's  efficiency.  He  demands 
maximum  results,  and  the  salesman  who  wishes  to  re- 
main in  his  employ  must  take  the  precaution  to  con- 
serve every  ounce  of  energy  that  he  possesses.  No 
man  can  be  intemperate  in  anything  and  expect  to  de- 
velop himself  to  the  utmost.  The  keen,  aggressive, 
successful  salesman  of  today  is  clear-eyed  and  clear- 
brained.  He  achieves  the  results  that  he  sets  out  to 
accomplish  because  he  is  absolute  master  of  himself — 
for  mastery  of  self  gives  mastery  of  others. 

The  day  of  the  salesman  who  was  a  heavy  drinker 
passed  long  before  we  put  prohibition  into  the  consti- 
tution. The  business  goes  today  to  the  sales- 
man who  is  most  useful  to  his  customer.  A  sales- 
man's days  of  usefulness  are  numbered  if  befuddled 
mornings  follow  dissipated  nights.  The  sales  manager 
and  the  credit  man  unite  to  refuse  business  influenced 
by  whiskey  diplomacy. 

"While,  on  the  one  hand,  the  salesman  must  be  tem- 
perate in  his  amusements  and  must  be  a  hard  worker, 
on  the  other  hand  no  man  can  work  one  hundred  per 
cent  of  the  time  and  be  more  than  fifty  per  cent  effi- 
cient. If  the  salesman  would  make  the  best  of  his 
time,  he  must  devote  a  part  of  it  to  healthful  recre- 
ation. He  must  have  diversion  in  order  that  he  may 
return  to  business  with  a  clearer  brain.  Recreation 
does  much  to  keep  the  salesman  cheerful  and  optimis- 


THE  SALESMAN'S  DUTIES  187 

tic.  The  things  that  a  salesman  does  outside  of  busi- 
ness hours — the  hobbies  he  rides,  the  books  he  reads — 
have  much  to  do  with  what  he  is  able  to  accomplish 
during  business  hours. 

Recreation,  then,  should  be  a  servant  to  the  sales- 
man; the  salesman  should  not  be  a  slave  to  his  recre- 
ation. And  above  all,  recreation  should  never  be  al- 
lowed to  encroach  upon  prospect-seeing  time,  nor 
should  it  ever  be  allowed  to  interfere  with  the  sales- 
man's preparation  for  his  next  day's  work.  The  true 
test  of  the  value  of  the  salesman's  recreation  is  whether 
or  not  it  enables  him  to  return  to  his  work  more  cheer- 
ful and  more  efficient. 

REVIEW 

What  are  the  salesman's  duties  and  responsibilities  to  his 
house?  to  his  customers?  to  himself?  in  regard  to  territory? 

Discuss  the  salesman's  time  and  its  use — in  business  hours; 
outside  of  business. 

Discuss  as  they  apply  to  your  business:  organizing  a  town; 
planning  the  day's  work;  preparing  for  the  next  day;  percentage 
of  efficiency;  rainy  day  work. 


CHAPTER  X 

COOPERATION,  INFLUENCE  AND  FRIENDSHIP 

1.  31  calling  of  cooperation. — The  word  coopera- 
tion embodies  one  of  the  biggest  ideas  in  salesman- 
ship. We  have  already  spoken  of  the  value  of  co- 
operation in  gaining  an  audience  with  the  prospect. 
We  shall  look  at  it  here  in  its  broader  aspects,  for 
cooperation  is  the  order  of  the  day — the  house  co- 
operates with  the  salesman  and  with  the  customer, 
and  looks  for  their  cooperation  in  return.  The  cus- 
tomer extends  his  cooperation  to  the  house,  and  more 
especially  to  the  salesman.  The  salesman  cooperates 
both  with  the  house  and  with  the  customer. 

Cooperation  means  working  together  with  other 
men  and  having  them  work  together  with  you,  for 
mutual  assistance  and  benefit.  For  no  man  of  his 
own  unaided  efforts  can  accomplish  much. 

2.  Salesman's  cooperation  "with  the  house. — In  a 
certain  Indiana  town,  on  a  river-front  street  in  a 
neighborhood  frequented  principally  by  river  men 
and  roustabouts,  is  a  dingy  windowed  shop  which  is 
designated  a  custom-tailoring  establishment,  because 
it  keeps  in  stock  a  few  wisps  of  cloth,  and  because  its 
proprietor  devotes  himself  to  the  repairing  and  press- 
ing of  the  commonest  kind  of  clothing.     There,  in  the 

188 


COOPERATION  AND  FRIENDSHIP  189 

midst  of  sordid  surroundings,  is  a  neat,  bright  sign 
proclaiming  this  place  to  be  the  exclusive  agency  in 
that  town  for  a  nationally-advertised  article  of  cloth- 
ing. The  salesman  who  placed  that  exclusive  agency 
was  not  cooperating  with  his  house.  He  was  not 
doing  his  honest  best  to  make  his  company's  enormous 
investment  in  advertising  pay  dividends.  His  half- 
hearted efforts  to  place  the  exclusive  agency  with  a 
worthy  house  probably  failed,  and,  not  wanting  to 
admit  the  failure,  he  hit  upon  this  poor,  makeshift 
method  of  making  things  look  all  right  at  the  home 
office. 

An  honest  salesman  who  is  loyal  and  has  a  right 
conception  of  the  meaning  of  cooperation,  will  do 
nothing  that  is  not  to  the  best  interests  of  his  house. 
He  feels  that,  in  a  sense,  he  is  a  partner  of  the  house. 
He  travels  about  the  country  with  no  direct  super- 
vision, performing  acts  for  which  his  principals  are 
responsible  and  upon  which  their  profits  depend.  He 
feels  that  he  owes  the  house  the  same  sort  of  cooper- 
ation that  one  partner  owes  another. 

3.  Securing  valuable  information. — In  times  gone 
by,  salesmen  felt  that  their  following — those  to  whom 
they  sold — was  their  own  chief  asset.  They  jealously 
guarded  the  information  that  they  possessed  concern- 
ing their  customers.  When  they  left  one  house  to 
make  a  new  connection,  they  switched  their  trade  to 
the  new  house  witli  them.  All  this  has  changed,  and 
today  customers  are  considered  as  an  asset  of  the 
house  rather  than  of  the  salesman.     For  the  most 

VI— 14 


190  SALESMANSHIP 

part,  the  trade  remains  with  the  house  even  tho  the 
salesmen  in  the  territory  are  changed.  The  salesman 
no  longer  withholds  information  about  the  customers. 
He  secures  all  he  can  and  passes  it  along  to  his 
house. 

A  salesman's  suggestion  to  his  firm  that  a  certain 
dealer's  window  display  is  poor  will  bring,  in  the 
firm's  letter  to  that  house  acknowledging  the  order,  a 
carefully  worded  suggestion  as  to  the  dollars  and  cents 
value  of  competent  window-dressers,  as  well  as  an 
offer  to  send,  upon  request,  definite  information  as  to 
how  and  where  to  procure  them.  A  report  on  the 
prospect's  advertising  will  bring  suggestions  for  im- 
provement, illustrations  of  cuts,  and  upon  the  dealer's 
personal  request,  in  many  cases,  the  actual  cuts  will 
be  sent. 

4.  Cooperating  with  credit  man  and  with  advertis- 
ing manager. — A  matter  of  much  importance  is  coop- 
eration with  the  credit  man.  While  the  latter  makes 
use  of  the  usual  credit-information  agencies,  he  must 
look  to  the  salesman  to  supplement  this  if  he  is  to 
handle  credits  with  a  minimum  loss  and  a  maximum 
amount  of  business.  Ratings  change  more  rapidly 
than  credit  books  can  be  issued.  INIany  of  the  smaller 
business  men  have  a  prejudice  against  disclosing  their 
financial  condition  to  Dun's  or  Bradstreet's.  As  a 
consequence,  their  ratings  are  lower  than  they  should 
be.  But  financial  standing  is  not  the  only  index  to 
reliability.  A  business  of  very  limited  capital  but 
with  large  capacity  to  grow  may  be  a  better  credit  risk 


COOPERATION  AND  FRIENDSHIP  191 

and  may  be  better  worth  developing  than  one  with  a 
large  capital  whose  business  is  beginning  to  suffer 
from  dry-rot.  The  credit  man  of  today  aims  to  know 
these  things.  He  can  secure  a  knowledge  of  them  in 
just  two  ways;  either  he  must  obtain  the  knowledge  at 
first  hand,  or  he  must  depend  on  the  cooperation  of 
the  salesman. 

The  salesman  should  welcome  an  opportunity  to 
cooperate  with  his  company,  in  the  handling  of  slow- 
paying  customers  and  in  adjusting  complaints. 
While  it  is  in  most  cases  bad  practice  to  have  a  sales- 
man do  any  part  of  the  routine  collection  work,  it  is 
highly  desirable  that  he  deal  with  special  cases.  It  is 
frequently  the  case  that  an  account  is  disputed,  be- 
cause the  customer  may  rightfully  feel  that  he  is  en- 
titled to  an  allowance  on  account  of  certain  defects  in 
the  goods,  delay  in  shipping,  improper  packing,  or 
something  of  that  sort.  Unless  such  matters  as  these 
are  adjusted  satisfactorily,  a  customer  will  be  lost  to 
the  house.  The  same  thing  holds  true  of  all  com- 
plaints. The  salesman  should  realize  that  the  best 
sales  practice  is  to  make  the  adjustment  complete  and 
satisfactory  before  trying  to  get  further  business  from 
the  disgruntled  customer. 

Probably  one  of  the  most  difficult  branches  of  the 
work  in  which  to  get  the  salesman's  active  cooperation 
is  the  advertising.  A  great  many  salesmen  are  prone 
to  look  askance  at  the  virtues  of  advertising  as  applied 
to  their  particular  products.  This  has  been  true  in 
connection  with  almost  every  advertising  campaign. 


192  SALESMANSHIP 

A  great  many  firms  have  failed  for  no  other  reason 
than  the  absence  of  the  cooperation  of  the  salesman  in 
turning  inquiries  into  orders,  in  cashing  in  on  the  gen- 
eral publicity.  This  cooperation  on  the  part  of  the 
salesman  is  looked  upon  as  an  important  link  in  the 
chain  in  every  advertising  campaign.  The  salesman 
should  feel  under  obligation  to  follow  the  instructions 
of  his  house  regarding  the  advertising,  he  should  fol- 
low advertising  leads  immediately  and  should  report 
upon  them  promptly.  He  will  be  amply  repaid  for 
this  cooperation  in  increased  orders. 

5.  Relation  to  sales  manager. — The  salesman's 
work  in  the  field  is  arduous.  JNIost  sales  managers 
are  careful,  first,  to  refrain  from  requiring  any  in- 
formation from  their  salesmen  that  can  be  secured 
from  any  other  source,  and  secondly,  to  reduce  the 
salesmen's  clerical  work  to  a  minimum.  There  are, 
however,  some  reports  which  sales  managers  deem 
essential.  Expense  accounts  must  be  fairly  detailed, 
route  slips  must  be  made  out,  and  formal  information 
reports  must  sometimes  accompany  orders.  If  the 
salesman  considers  that  any  of  this  work  does  not 
properly  belong  to  him,  or  that  it  is  taking  up  too 
great  a  portion  of  his  time,  he  should  discuss  the  mat- 
ter frankly  with  his  sales  manager.  Many  a  good 
salesman  has  lost  favor  with  those  at  the  home  office 
because  he  has  been  careless  and  neglected  his  reports. 
A  salesman  should  consider  himself  a  business  man 
and  organize  and  dispatch  his  work  in  the  same  or- 


COOPERATION  AND  FRIENDSHIP  193 

derly  manner  in  which  the  home  office  performs  its 
duties. 

At  times  the  house  may  desire  to  test  the  selhng 
possibihties  of  a  new  article  or  to  carry  on  some  smii- 
lar  experiment.  It  may  desire  to  push  for  an  espe- 
cially large  sale  of  a  particular  commodity,  or  to  re- 
duce to  a  minimum  the  sale  of  an  unprofitable  one. 
Loj^al  cooperation  demands  that  the  salesman  throw 
himself  into  these  experiments  or  special  campaigns 
with  his  whole  heart  and  that  he  give  the  sales  man- 
ager his  best  support  in  carrying  them  to  a  successful 
conclusion. 

When  a  firm  enters  foreign  markets,  the  salesman 
may  be  of  material  assistance  in  providing  for  the  safe 
and  prompt  handling  of  shipments,  in  seeing  goods 
thru  the  custom  house,  and  in  making  advantageous 
arrangements  for  collections. 

Most  houses  publish  a  house  organ  for  the  benefit  of 
the  men  in  their  selling  organizations.  A  great  many 
house  organs  are  notable  chiefly  for  their  dearth  of 
salesmen's  contributions.  The  salesman  looks  for- 
ward eagerly  to  the  arrival  of  his  house  organ,  bring- 
ing him  news  of  what  the  other  fellows  are  doing  and 
how  they  are  doing  it.  He  receives  from  it  a  great 
deal  of  inspiration.  He  helps  his  house  and  his  fel- 
low salesmen  when  he  contributes  to  it.  The  salesman 
should  cooperate  with  the  house-organ  editor  to  make 
the  paper  a  real  clearing-house  for  information. 

Closely  connected  with  this  obligation  is  his  duty  to 


194*  SALESMANSHIP 

contribute  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  organization, 
any  new  selling  point  that  he  may  have  worked  out 
and  put  into  effect.  Altho  to  do  this  may,  on  first 
thought,  appear  to  be  against  his  own  best  interests, 
especially  if  there  is  a  prize  contest  of  any  sort  in 
progress,  no  salesman  will  question  that  the  best  in- 
terests of  the  house  and  himself  are,  in  the  long  run, 
identical. 

Something  was  said  in  the  last  chapter  about  meth- 
ods to  be  used  in  working  a  territory.  The  sales- 
man is  not  cooperating  with  the  house  to  the  fullest 
extent  unless  he  assumes  the  moral  responsibility  to 
get  the  best  out  of  his  territory  at  all  times.  It  has 
been  said  that  the  salesman  on  the  road  keeps  the  plant 
going.  He  cannot  do  that  unless  he  puts  forth  his 
best  efforts  for  eight  hours  a  day,  six  days  a  week. 
The  house  is  entitled  to  the  salesman's  cooperation  in 
keeping  the  office  running  at  full  capacity.  He 
should  make  sure  to  send  in  all  of  the  business  to  which 
the  house  is  entitled  from  his  territory. 

6.  Cooperation  from  the  house. — The  salesman  has 
a  perfect  right  to  expect  that  all  this  cooperation 
he  gives  the  house,  every  bit  of  information  he  fur- 
nishes regarding  a  customer  or  prospect,  every  report 
he  turns  in,  will  sooner  or  later  be  to  his  advantage. 
If  the  assistance  he  renders  does  not  enable  the  house 
to  cooperate  with  him  in  increasing  business  in  his 
territory,  his  efforts  are  not  accomplishing  their  pur- 
pose. 

Unfortunately,  many  salesmen  ask  for  and  expect 


COOPERATION  AND  FRIENDSHIP  195 

a  great  deal  of  help  and  information  which  it  is  im- 
possible for  the  house  to  give,  or  which  would  be  far 
too  costly  for  the  results  that  could  be  achieved  by 
giving  it.  Moreover,  salesmen  sometimes  make  prom- 
ises to  customers  that  cannot  be  carried  out.  The 
salesman  should  bear  in  mind  that  most  of  the  co- 
operation that  the  house  can  afford  to  give,  has  been 
systematized.  When  asking  for  special  cooperation 
not  provided  for  in  the  system,  he  should  carefully 
consider  the  cost  of  that  assistance  as  compared  with 
results  that  could  be  expected  if  it  were  given. 

The  cooperation  given  to  the  salesman  by  the  house 
will  be  discussed  more  in  detail  in  the  second  section 
of  this  Text.  Briefly,  it  is  of  two  kinds:  Cooperation 
in  organizing  territories  and  in  securing  prospects 
and  information  concerning  them;  and  the  cultiva- 
tion of  customers,  to  the  end  that  he  may  get  further 
and  increased  business  from  them. 

7.  Salesinans  cooperation  with  customers. — A 
leading  drygoods  salesman  tells  a  story  of  having 
worked  strenuously  all  week  to  finish  his  last  town  on 
Friday  afternoon  so  that  he  might  take  a  run  home 
over  the  week-end.  He  arrived  at  the  last  place  on 
schedule  late  Friday  afternoon  and  went  to  make  an 
appointment  for  that  evening  with  the  proprietor  of 
the  big  drygoods  store.  He  found  his  prospect  in 
the  midst  of  hurried  preparation  for  Saturday  busi- 
ness. His  window-dresser  had  left  him  unexpectedly 
the  day  before.  The  salesman  forgot  all  about  the 
order  for  which  he  had  come  into  town,  and  the  pleas- 


196  SALESMANSHIP 

ant  week-end  he  had  planned;  he  took  off  his  coat 
xind  dressed  those  store  windows  as  they  had  never 
been  dressed  before.  The  window-dresser  had  acted 
also  as  clerk,  so  the  salesman  stayed  over  to  plunge 
into  the  Saturday  selling.  He  did  not  get  away  from 
the  town  until  Saturday,  on  the  night  train.  It  is 
easy  to  believe  that  the  store  proprietor  did  not  soon 
forget  that  service;  it  is  not  improbable  that  he  held 
his  orders  until  the  arrival  of  the  friend  who  had 
dressed  his  windows;  indeed,  it  is  quite  likely  that  he 
turned  the  business  of  other  merchants  toward  the 
man  who  helped  him  at  the  sacrifice  of  his  own  pleas- 
ure. That  is  probably  the  exact  result  the  salesman 
expected,  but  his  help  was  no  less  sincere  because  he 
expected  this  result. 

A  salesman  expects  to  get  cooperation  from  his 
customers  and,  in  turn,  stands  ready  to  give  all  pos- 
sible cooperation  to  them.  It  is  significant  in  this 
connection,  that  the  Heinze  Company  some  time  ago 
issued  instructions  to  every  salesman  not  to  attempt 
to  sell  anything  on  Saturdays,  but  to  jump  in  behind 
the  counter  with  one  of  the  retail  grocers  in  the  town 
in  which  he  happened  to  be  and  help  him  sell  his  goods. 

8.  Serving  as  a  clearing  house  for  information. — 
The  traveling  salesman  covers  a  wide  range  of  terri- 
tory and  accumulates  a  great  deal  of  information  re- 
garding the  best  business  methods  of  the  firms  on 
which  he  is  calling.  He  acts  as  a  clearing-house  for 
these  ideas.  He  knows  mucli  about  window-trimming 
and  effective  displav;  he  can  tactfully  correct  the  ten- 


COOPERATION  AND  FRIENDSHIP  197 

dency  of  the  storekeeper  in  the  small  town  to  over- 
crowd his  windows.  He  can  arrange  a  tempting 
array  of  things  to  catch  the  eye  of  anyone  who  enters 
the  store.  And  who  can  blame  him  if,  in  doing  so,  he 
gives  his  own  line  a  prominent  place  ?  He  knows  the 
new  styles.  He  is  familiar  with  the  lines  that  are 
moving  most  rapidly  or  with  those  that  the  bigger 
buyers  are  securing  in  large  quantities.  If  the  dealer 
is  overstocked,  or  has  a  line  of  goods  that  is  slow  in 
getting  off  the  shelves,  the  salesman  can  give  him  sug- 
gestions for  plans  of  special  sales  that  will  help  him 
move  them. 

The  salesman  can  help  his  customer  with  advertis- 
ing problems ;  he  can  suggest  more  effective  copy  and 
new,  distinctive  methods  of  arranging  the  advertising 
matter.  He  can  be  of  assistance  in  the  preparation  of 
lists  for  circular  letters.  In  some  cases,  he  can  even 
go  so  far  as  to  suggest  and  discuss  better  methods  of 
financing  the  customer's  business. 

The  salesman  knows  that  a  great  many  sales  over 
the  counter  are  lost  because  of  the  inefficiency  of  the 
retail  clerk.  He  should  be  able  to  devise  and  sug- 
gest methods  of  training  clerks  that  will  enable  them 
to  sell  to  a  greater  proportion  of  the  people  who  enter 
the  store  and  to  sell  a  larger  amount  to  each  of  them. 
In  doing  this  it  is  probable  that  he  will  gain  the 
friendship  of  the  clerks  and  that,  as  a  result,  his  line 
will  be  among  those  that  move  quickly. 

All  this  is  just  as  true  in  principle  for  the  specialty 
man,  for  he,  too,  meets  business  men  who  have  difficult 


198  SALESMANSHIP 

business  problems  and  he  can  help  in  their  solution. 
The  range  of  the  possible  cooperation  that  the  retail 
clerk  can  render  is  more  limited.  Even  here,  how- 
ever, there  are  opportunities  for  genuine  service. 

9.  Cultivating    personal    relations. — The    oppor- 
tunity for  giving  a  personal  touch  to  transactions  with 
customers  should  not  be  overlooked.     One  salesman, 
who  handles  an  article  on  which  he  can  get  no  future 
orders — that  he  can  sell  to  a  person  only  once  in  a 
lifetime — has  a  list  of  every  man  he  has  ever  sold.     At 
appropriate  times  during  the  year  he  sends  every  one 
of  them  a  card  of  remembrance  or  some  little  token 
that,  as  he  expresses  it,  keeps  the  memory  gi*een.     He 
takes  the  trouble  to  address  each  card  himself  and 
to  write  the  message  in  his  own  handwriting  so  that 
there  will  be  no  mistake  about  its  being  a  personal 
greeting.     As  a  result,  tho  he  may  not  have  seen  a 
man  for  two  or  three  years,  he  is  considered  an  old 
friend  and  given  valuable  cooperation  in  securing  new 
business.     The  picture  post-card  from  Atlantic  City, 
which  carries  the  message,  "Wish  you  were  along,"  is 
much  appreciated  by  the  salesman's  customer  out  in 
Ohio.     Sending   something   in   which   the    salesman 
knows  the  customer  will  be  interested  is  a  sincere  per- 
sonal touch.     It  goes  without  saying  that  the  pros- 
pects who  do  not  buy  should  not  be  slighted  as  re- 
gards these  little  attentions.     The  salesman  who  in- 
creases the  number  of  his  friends  increases  the  num- 
ber and  the  value  of  his  assets. 

10.  Cooperation   from   customers. — A    wag   once 


COOPERATION  AND  FRIENDSHIP  199 

said  that  success  was  largely  a  matter  of  dining  with 
the  right  people.  Certainly  having  the  friendship 
and  cooperation  of  the  right  people  constitutes  the 
line  of  least  resistance  to  success  in  selling.  A  high- 
class  specialty  salesman,  who  handled  a  service  for 
business  men  and  government  officials,  planned  a  trip 
to  the  Philippine  Islands,  intending  to  stop  off.  at 
Hawaii.  He  did  not  start  from  New  York.  He 
decided  that  the  place  from  which  to  start  that  trip 
was  Washington.  From  a  high  official  in  his  concern 
he  secured  a  letter  of  introduction  to  a  prominent  man 
in  Congress.  To  this  man  the  salesman  explained  his 
mission,  and  from  him  he  secured  further  introduc- 
tions. He  left  Washington  a  week  later,  armed  with 
a  letter  from  the  Secretary  of  State  to  all  the  Far 
Eastern  bureau  chiefs,  and  with  letters  from  those 
in  charge  of  insular  affairs  at  Washington  to  the  chief 
executives  in  Hawaii  and  Manila. 

At  both  these  places,  then,  he  was  enabled  im- 
mediately to  get  on  a  right  footing  with  those  high  up 
in  government  circles,  and  from  them  he  obtained  let- 
ters of  indorsement  that  enabled  him  to  reach  the 
lesser  government  officials  effectively.  Then  it  was 
not  difficult  to  use  the  cooperation  of  his  government 
friends  in  reaching  the  business  men  of  the  com- 
munity. Incidentalhs  in  his  travels  he  secured  letters 
to  Americans  living  at  ports  in  China  and  Japan 
where  he  planned  to  stop.  His  whole  successful  trip, 
in  short,  was  just  one  big  plan  of  progTessive  coopera- 
tion. 


200  SALESMANSHIP 

In  this  particular  case  the  salesman,  in  return  for 
the  wonderful  cooperation  that  he  received,  gave  noth- 
ing but  the  warm,  sincere  friendship  of  a  man  of 
remarkable  personality.  Those  who  used  their  in- 
fluence to  further  his  interests  felt  that  they  had  been 
doing  their  friends  a  favor  by  directing  the  salesman 
to  tiiem.  This  is  the  best  kind  of  cooperation  as  the 
specialty  salesman  sees  it. 

11.  Value  of  customer  cooperation. — A  large  con- 
cern which  sold  filing  equipment  allotted  so  much  ter- 
ritory to  each  representative  that  the  salesman  was 
able  to  see  only  the  principal  prospects  in  each  town. 
Judging  from  the  occasional  inquiries  from  smaller 
concerns,  the  company  decided  that  these  firms  might 
be  worth  working.  With  that  end  in  view  they  re- 
apportioned the  territory  and  gave  each  salesman 
only  as  much  of  the  field  as  he  could  work  intensively. 
The  results  were  gratifying  beyond  the  company's 
expectation.  The  smaller  concerns  were  strongly 
influenced  by  the  fact  that  the  salesman  could  name 
large  companies  in  town  who  were  using  the  equip- 
ment. Furthermore,  oflice  men  in  large  concerns 
talked  to  those  in  smaller  ones  about  the  equipment 
and  were  very  glad  to  recommend  it  when  the  occa- 
sion required.  The  influence  and  cooperation  thus 
secured  made  selling  to  the  smaller  concerns  an  easy 
matter.  This  principle  holds  true  in  all  kinds  of 
selling. 

The  fact  that  certain  big  drygoods  concerns  have 
stocked  up  on  a  certain  line  will  influence  the  smaller 


COOPERATION  AND  FRIENDSHIP  201 

dealers  to  do  the  same.  The  fact  that  a  president 
buys  a  certain  article  will  influence  the  vice-president 
to  buy  it ;  the  department  heads  will  be  influenced  by 
the  president  and  the  vice-president.  The  names  of 
the  prominent  people  of  a  town  on  a  list  of  purchas- 
ers, have  a  dollars-and-cents  value.  The  general 
principle  is  to  start  at  the  top  and  work  down;  that 
is,  to  secure  first  the  business  of  the  individual  or  the 
concern  that  will  influence  further  business. 

12.  Customer  as  a  firm  representative. — A  sales- 
man who  was  being  complimented  on  his  wonderful 
record  in  selling  a  new  office  device,  replied  that  his 
record  would  be  remarkable  if  he  were  the  only  rep- 
resentative his  firm  had  in  town.  He  was  only  the 
chief  representative,  it  seemed.  Every  customer,  he 
explained,  was  an  assistant  representative,  operating 
under  his  direction  and  working  up  leads,  cooperation 
and  enthusiasm.  Considering  that  he  had  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  representatives,  he  concluded  it  was  not 
so  surprising  that  he  was  getting  big  results. 

This  man  seldom  asked  directly  for  cooperation. 
He  would  merely  drop  in  as  he  was  passing  to  thank 
a  customer  for  having  directed  him  to  a  man  who  had 
purchased  the  day  before;  or  he  would  stop  with  a 
magazine  article  in  which  he  thought  the  customer 
might  be  interested;  he  would  bring  in  a  little  book 
for  which  he  had  sent  to  Xew  York  because  he  knew 
the  customer  would  enjoy  it.  Then  as  he  was  leaving, 
his  host  would  probably  make  some  such  remark  as 
this :     "I  was  talking  to  Brown  yesterday  about  your 


202  SALESMANSHIP 

office  device  and  he  seems  quite  interested.  I  should 
suggest  that  you  go  and  see  him.  Mention  my  name." 
Here  again  we  find  the  "y^^"  attitude  of  the  sales- 
man effective.  A  great  many  specialty  salesmen 
make  the  mistake  of  breaking  in  upon  a  customer 
merely  to  ask  whether  he  can  suggest  anyone  who 
would  be  likely  to  buy. 

Under  some  circumstances  as,  for  instance,  when 
the  new  prospect  whose  name  is  suggested  is  difficult 
to  see,  it  might  be  well  for  the  salesman  to  reply: 
"All  right,  I  shall  be  glad  to  see  him.  I  wonder 
whether  you  would  mind  getting  him  on  the  phone  and 
telling  him  I  am  coming?"  Or,  if  it  seems  preferable : 
"I  wonder  whether  you  would  mind  giving  me  a  few 
words  of  introduction  to  him  on  the  back  of  your 
card."  Cooperation  is  valuable ;  it  wins  for  the  sales- 
man interviews  which  are  based  on  friendliness ;  and  in 
the  case  of  this  kind  of  interviews  the  proportion  of 
sales  is  large. 

Staple  salesmen  very  often  overlook  opportunities 
for  cooperation.  Retail  salesmen  do  not  get  as  much 
of  it  as  they  should.  There  are  a  large  number  of 
salesmen  in  the  men's  clothing,  women's  cloaks  and 
suits,  furniture  and  rug  departments  of  the  big  retail 
stores,  however,  who  have  a  following  of  customers 
who  frequently  send  friends  to  them. 

13.  Letters  of  indorsement. — The  use  of  letters  of 
indorsement  as  a  part  of  a  salesman's  equipment  is 
becoming  more  and  more  common.  Those  received 
from  especially  influential  men  or  particularly  impor- 


COOPERATION  AND  FRIENDSHIP  203 

tant  concerns  are  valuable  sales  material  in  any  part 
of  the  country.  The  same  thing  is  true,  in  a  slightly 
less  degree,  of  letters  from  people  who  are  little 
known.  JNIuch  more  valuable  than  either  of  these  are 
the  local  letters  of  indorsement  that  the  salesman  se- 
cures thru  the  cooperation  of  his  more  prominent  cus- 
tomers. 

It  is  an  art  to  secure  from  a  customer  the  exact  sort 
of  letter  of  indorsement  desired.  In  a  few  cases,  the 
customer  will  allow  the  salesman  to  dictate  the  letter, 
and  then,  of  course,  the  matter  is  simple.  In  a  much 
larger  number  of  cases,  however,  the  customer  will 
desire  to  say  what  he  pleases  and  to  say  it  in  his  own 
way.  The  danger  here  is  that  the  letter  may  be  too 
long,  too  general  or  possibly  couched  in  such  extrava- 
gant terms  as  to  seem  an  exaggeration. 

The  salesman,  then,  must  draw  the  customer  out  on 
particular  points,  and,  when  he  has  secured  two  or 
three  specific  statements  in  good  forceful  language, 
he  can  suggest:  "JNIr.  Customer,  you  have  made 
three  strong  points  for  my  proposition  and  you  have 
made  them  in  very  forceful  language.  I  wonder 
whether  you  would  mind  giving  me  a  letter  making 
just  those  three  points.  I  know  you  would  be  willing 
to  indorse  the  whole  proposition  if  I  asked  you  to,  but 
I  am  going  to  be  satisfied  if  you  will  just  give  me 
three  or  four  paragraphs  making  those  three  points." 
The  salesman  will,  of  course,  know  what  kind  of  in- 
dorsement letter  he  desires,  and  he  must  secure  it  by 
means  of  strong,  positive  suggestion. 

14.  Loyalty  and  cooperation. — The  salesman,  then, 


204*  SALESMANSHIP 

should  be  loyal  to  the  house  and  loyal  to  the  cus- 
tomer. He  should  cooperate  with  the  house  and  with 
the  customer.  Loyalty  inspires  loyalty  and  cooper- 
ation inspires  cooperation.  The  salesman  who  satis- 
fies the  customer,  who  gets  business  in  the  right  way, 
and  who  brings  his  customer  helpful,  practical  sugges- 
tions is  giving  him  cooperation  in  the  best  sense  of  the 
word.  Friendship  and  the  cooperation  that  it  cre- 
ates govern  ahiiost  every  act  of  humanity.  Unless 
the  salesman  can  create  influence,  friendship  and  co- 
operation, for  himself  and  for  his  house,  he  will  meet 
with  untold  difficulty  and  discouragement.  But  the 
man  who  can  foster  these  will  find  both  pleasure  and 
profit  in  practising  the  art  of  salesmanship. 

REVIEW 

How  should  the  salesman  cooperate  with  the  house?  With  the 
customer?     With  the  sales  manager  especially? 

Discuss  the  cooperation  the  salesman  may  look  for  from  the 
house:  from  the  customer. 


PART  II 
SALES  MANAGEMENT 


VI— 15 


SALES  MANAGEMENT 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  SALES  MANAGER— HIS  QUALIFICATIONS 
AND  DUTIES 

1.  Necessity  for  efficient  sales  management. — 
Sales  management  is  distinctly  a  present-day  prob- 
lem. Not  so  many  years  ago  the  principal  business 
houses  of  the  country  were  distributors  of  staples; 
they  sold  goods  for  which  there  was  a  demand  already 
existing.  The  area  in  which  they  could  sell  was,  to  a 
great  extent,  limited  by  the  lack  of  shipping  facilities. 
They  felt  that  they  were  entitled  to  a  fair  share  of  the 
business  within  this  territory.  The  salesman  was 
looked  upon  as  a  man  who  merely  called  upon  dealers, 
a  hail  fellow  well  met,  who  by  story-telling  and  gen- 
eral good  fellowship,  secured  the  orders  that  the  dealer 
had  to  place.  The  distributors  failed  to  realize  that 
the  methods  of  handling  the  salesmen  from  headquar- 
ters had  much  to  do  with  the  volume  of  business  turned 
in  by  the  selling  force. 

Consequently,  the  sales  department  was  looked 
upon  as  a  sort  of  necessary  evil,  and  the  salesman  was 
too  often  considered  a  more  or  less  irresponsible  per- 

207 


208  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

son,  who  was  unfitted  for  any  of  the  really  important 
departments  of  business,  and  who  had  capitalized  a 
roaming  disposition  and  a  pleasing  personality.  The 
supervision  of  the  salesman  was  often  left  either  to 
the  proprietor's  promising  young  son — whose  activ- 
ities in  this  direction  consisted  principally  of  writing 
letters  of  carping  criticism —  or  to  the  trusted  book- 
keeper, who  considered  sales  management  a  kind  of 
side  issue  and  confined  his  supervision  almost  entirely 
to  criticism  of  the  expense  accounts. 

It  remained  for  the  sellers  of  specialties  to  show 
what  could  be  done  by  an  efficient  and  properly  man- 
aged sales  organization.  In  specialty  lines  enthusias- 
tic and  properly  trained  selling  forces,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  men  with  a  proper  conception  of  the  meaning 
and  the  importance  of  sales  management,  have  out  of 
nothing  created  markets  for  their  products ;  have  suc- 
■  ceeded  in  fields  where  it  was  necessary  to  educate  the 
consumer  and  create  the  demand  before  a  sale  could 
be  made;  have  changed  the  antagonism  of  prospects 
into  active  cooperation;  and  have  evinced  a  loyalty 
for  their  houses  previously  unknown  in  staple  lines. 

Andrew  Carnegie  is  reported  as  having  once  said 
that  if  his  business  were  taken  from  him,  but  his  or- 
ganization were  left  to  him,  it  would  be  a  compara- 
tively simple  matter  to  build  up  a  new  business;  but 
that  if  his  organization  were  taken  from  him  it  would 
be  a  much  more  serious  matter,  since  without  his  or- 
ganization the  business  would  inevitably  fail  and  the 
building  of  a  new  organization,  except  by  a  gradual 


THE  SALES  MANAGER  209 

process  extending  over  a  long  period,  would  be  an  im- 
possibility. There  is  no  other  phase  of  business  in 
which  organization  is  as  important  as  in  selling;  and 
an  efficient  organization  cannot  be  achieved  without 
the  expenditure  of  time  and  labor.  To  build  a  loyal 
and  efficient  selling  force,  and  to  create  in  it  a  proper 
spirit,  is  the  work  of  months  and  even  years. 

The  old  order  of  management,  only  slightly  modi- 
fied, still  obtains  in  a  great  many  staple  houses.  The 
small  minority  of  such  houses  as  have  applied  specialty 
methods  to  their  sales  management,  however,  have 
been  remarkably  successful.  Their  success  has  given- 
a  stimulus  to  the  idea  that,  as  production  is  generally 
unrestricted  in  normal  times,  the  growth  of  a  business 
is  dependent  on  how  much  it  can  sell,  and  that  the 
volume  of  the  sales  depends  upon  the  organization, 
training  and  management  of  the  selling  force. 
Managers  are  coming  to  realize  more  and  more  that 
the  methods  of  manasfinff  the  men  in  the  field  deter- 
mine,  to  a  great  extent,  the  volume  of  business  they 
turn  in,  the  measure  of  their  loyalty  and  enthusiasm, 
and  the  length  of  time  the  best  of  them  will  remain 
with  the  organization.  The  policy  of  the  manage- 
ment will  have  nuich  to  do,  too,  with  the  extent  to 
which  new  men  of  the  right  caliber  will  be  attracted  to 
the  organization.  The  first  principle  in  the  manage- 
ment of  a  successful  selling  force  requires  that  selling 
be  recognized  as  a  most  important  part  of  the  business. 

2.  Object  of  modern  sales  management. — The  first 
effect  of  the  awakening  to  the  possibilities  of  the 


210  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

new  methods  of  sales  management  was  the  adoption 
of  so-called  "ginger  up"  methods.  The  sales  man- 
ager was  either  a  "good  fellow,"  brought  in  off  the 
road,  who  could  "get  the  boys  coming";  or  a  writer 
of  "ginger"  letters  and  "punchy"  literature  who  was 
secured  from  outside  the  organization.  For  immedi- 
ate results,  these  methods  were  probably  as  good  as 
anj^ ;  but  to  secure  lasting  results,  enthusiasm,  loyalty 
and  the  ability  to  make  large  sales,  there  must  be  a 
more  solid  foundation.  Enthusiastic  letters  and  a 
house  organ  that  will  make  the  organization  a  unit 
have  their  places,  but  they  do  not  constitute  the  whole 
of  sales  management.  The  sales  manager  who  would 
achieve  permanent  success  today  must  have  other  abili- 
ties. His  efforts  must  be  directed  to  get  not  the  most, 
but  the  best  out  of  his  men. 

3.  Qualifications  of  the  sales  manager — rank  and 
experience. — It  is  desirable,  tho  not  essential,  that  the 
sales  manager  be  an  important  officer  of  the  firm, 
preferably  one  with  the  title  and  authority  of  an  exec- 
utive officer.  The  fact  that  the  sales  manager  is  a 
high  official  of  the  firm  insures  close  personal  super- 
vision of  the  sales  department  and,  in  addition,  places 
the  department  on  a  high  plane  of  dignity.  With 
such  a  man  in  charge  all  the  members  of  the  sales  de- 
partment will  take  special  pride  in  their  work  and  in 
their  organization,  and  better  men  will  be  attracted  to 
that  department  than  if  the  sales  manager  were  merely 
a  salaried  man.  This  does  not  mean  that  the  latter 
cannot  be  successful;  it  does  mean,  however,  that  he 


THE  SALES  MANAGER  211 

will  have  to  work  at  a  disadvantage,  unless  he  has 
been  a  member  of  the  selling  organization  and  the 
members  like  him  and  respect  his  ability. 

It  is  better  that  the  sales  manager  should  have  had 
selling  experience,  preferably  with  the  organization 
of  which  he  becomes  the  head.  In  the  selling  of  im- 
portant products  of  high  value  the  salesmen  should 
be  men  of  brains  and  capacity.  In  such  cases  it  is 
essential  that  the  sales  manager  shall  have  had  actual 
selling  experience.  In  the  selling  of  less  important, 
lower-priced  products,  however,  many  sales  managers 
who  lacked  selling  experience  have  achieved  success. 

4.  JLove  of  his  men. — We  have  already  said  that 
the  only  way  to  be  able  to  handle  men  is  to  love  them. 
This  is  just  as  true  of  the  sales  manager  in  dealing 
with  his  men  as  it  is  of  the  salesman  in  selling  the 
goods.  The  love  must  be  genuine;  it  must  not  be 
counterfeited.  The  sales  manager  should  be  a  keen 
student  of  human  nature.  He  should  know  the  short- 
comings of  his  men  as  well  as  their  strong  points.  He 
should  strive,  witliout  sarcasm,  criticism  or  impatience, 
to  eradicate  the  one  and  substantially  recognize  the 
other.  The  successful  sales  manager  will  have  the 
confidence  of  his  men  not  only  in  regard  to  matters 
of  business,  but  regarding  their  personal  and  home 
relations  also.  He  will  visit  the  salesmen  in  their 
homes  and  will  come  to  know  their  families  almost  as 
well  as  he  does  the  men  themselves. 

It  is  here  that  his  selling  experience  will  prove  help- 
ful.    The  man  who  has  experienced  the  hard  work 


212  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

and  discouragement  incidental  to  selling,  under- 
stands the  trouble  of  his  men  as  no  man  can  who 
knows  these  things  only  by  hearsay.  He  will  have  a 
keen  sympathy  for  the  man  in  a  "slump."  It  is  not 
even  necessary  that  he  shall  have  been  uniformly  suc- 
cessful in  the  field.  One  of  the  principal  reasons  why 
the  best  salesmen  do  not  oftentimes  make  the  best 
sales  managers  is  that  their  uniform  success  makes 
them  impatient  and  critical  of  the  salesman  who  is 
meeting  setbacks  and  who,  therefore,  most  needs  the 
helj)  of  the  sales  manager. 

A  sales  manager  must  not  be  autocratic.  He  will 
do  well  to  remember  that  while  he  is  leading  his  or- 
ganization, he  is  also  a  part  of  it ;  for  only  when  he  is 
alive  to  this  fact  can  he  secure  the  team  work  essential 
to  success.  If  he  expects  the  men  to  be  of  the  great- 
est possible  help  to  him,  he  will  not  be  satisfied  merely 
to  see  that  they  are  properly  compensated,  no  matter 
how  liberal  he  may  be  in  this  particular.  He  should 
be  friendly  with  his  men  and  should  study  them  with 
the  idea  of  bringing  out  their  individual  abilities  and 
inspiring  them  to  their  best  efforts. 

5.  Loyaltij  to  his  inen. — The  good  sales  manager 
acts  as  a  buffer  between  the  salesmen  and  any  of- 
ficers of  the  firm  who  may  be  calculating  and  critical. 
Such  a  statement  is  not  a  criticism  of  the  executives. 
It  merely  means  that  the  sales  manager,  being  closer 
to  his  men,  and  realizing  more  keenly  the  difficulties 
of  their  work,  can  make  these  things  clear  to  the  other 
executives  in  such  a  way  as  to  soften  theii*  feelings  to- 


THE  SALES  MANAGER  213 

ward  the  salesman  who  has  perhaps  sent  in  a  harsh 
criticism  of  the  production  department,  who  has  pro- 
tested against  shipping  or  collection  methods,  or 
whose  sales  have  fallen  off  sharply  in  volume.  A 
great  many  sales  managers  talk  about  loyalty  from 
the  men,  and  all  of  them  expect  it,  but  they  should 
not  forget  that  the  men  in  the  field  look  for  loy- 
alty from  the  sales  manager.  The  sales  manager 
who  is  loyal  to  his  men  will  have  loyal  men  about 
him. 

6.  Ability  to  maintain  discipline. — While  the  sales 
manager  must  rule  thru  love  and  not  thru  fear,  he 
must  be  able  to  maintain  discipline  in  his  organization. 
Otherwise,  he  will  have  men  routing  themselves  thru 
their  territories  in  a  haphazard  manner,  making  any 
arrangements  they  please  with  their  customers,  going 
outside  the  bounds  of  their  territories  for  business,  and 
running  into  the  house  for  trivial  reasons  when  they 
should  be  out  selling.  The  sales  manager's  position, 
however,  is  no  place  for  the  over-strict  disciplinarian. 
Good  salesmen  do  not  need  many  instructions.  They 
resent  being  hedged  about  with  many  restrictions. 
They  question  the  wisdom  of  the  sales  manager's 
directing  their  work  too  minutely.  The  sales  man- 
ager should  as  far  as  possible  throw  the  men  on  their 
own  resources  and  hold  them  responsible  for  results. 
Rules  should  be  few,  and  not  too  stringent.  Such  a 
method,  if  it  includes  broad-gauged  supervision,  gives 
a  freedom  of  action  that  encourages  self-reliance,  de- 
velops strong  men  and  weeds  out  weak  ones.     The 


214  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

successful  sales  manager  never  has  to  drive  his  men; 
they  stand  ready  to  fight  for  him  to  the  last  ditch. 

7.  Organizmg  ability. — The  sales  manager  must 
have  a  "teacher's  mind."  He  must  not  only  be  able 
carefully  to  select  men  who  can  successfully  sell  his 
proposition,  but  he  must  labor  continually  with  the  or- 
ganization and  with  each  individual  salesman,  giving 
detailed  instructions  and  showing  how  sales  can  be 
made.  This  is  a  difficult  and  tedious  task,  requiring 
no  small  amount  of  tact  and  infinite  patience. 

Furthermore,  the  sales  manager  must  be  a  man  who 
not  only  overflows  with  ideas  himself,  but  who  also 
has  the  talent  to  use  the  ideas  of  others.  His  desk 
should  be  a  clearing-house  for  selling  ideas  and  argu- 
ments. His  knowledge  of  the  goods  sold  should  be 
superior  to  that  of  any  other  man  in  the  organization. 

The  sales  manager  must  not  only  be  able  to  develop 
men  for  the  selling  work,  but  he  must  have  a  thoro 
grasp  of  the,  details  of  his  department  and  must  be 
able  to  develop  capable  assistants  in  his  own  office. 
He  should  encourage  those  under  him  to  exercise  in- 
telligent initiative,  in  order  that  they  may  take  the  de- 
tail work  off  his  shoulders,  so  that  he  himself  can  at- 
tend to  the  large  problems  of  his  department. 

8.  Brockd-gauged  knowledge  of  business. — If  the 
sales  manager  is  the  right  kind,  his  influence  on  the 
product  of  the  house  will  be  great,  for  he  is  in  a  posi- 
tion to  avail  himself  of  the  suggestions  sent  in  by  the 
salesmen,  and  thus  to  judge  what  will  sell.  He 
should  be  able  to  discuss  advertising  with  the  adver- 


THE  SALES  MANAGER  215 

tising  man  and,  if  necessary,  to  direct  the  advertising 
himself.  He  should  be  able  to  discuss  finances  with 
the  financial  man,  and  should  be  able  to  give  a  close 
estimate  of  the  amount  of  business  that  can  be  counted 
on  for  a  given  period.  This  estimate  will  be  based  on 
his  knowledge  of  the  selling  force,  man  by  man,  con- 
sidering their  past  performances  as  well  as  their  pres- 
ent accomphshment,  and  on  his  knowledge  of  the  gen- 
eral business  conditions  existing  in  the  various  terri- 
tories where  his  men  are  operating.  This  implies  that 
he  should  have  a  sufficiently  broad  knowledge  of  eco- 
nomics, money  and  banking,  and  trade  conditions  to 
read  the  financial  signs  of  the  times.  '  In  addition,  he 
should  have  a  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  fundamental 
jirinciples  of  accounting  to  enable  him  intelligently  to 
discuss  financial  statements  with  the  auditor. 

9.  True  test  of  efficiency. — Finally — and  this  is  ex- 
tremely important — the  sales  manager  should  realize 
that  his  one  excuse  for  being  a  sales  manager  is  to 
get  business.  In  order  to  do  so  he  must  keep  his 
men  in  the  right  frame  of  mind  so  that  they  will 
give  the  house  the  best  that  is  in  them.  It  is  all  too 
easy  for  the  manager  in  his  office  to  lose  sight  of  the 
difficulties  of  the  men  on  the  road.  It  is  easy  to  ^et 
out  of  patience  and  to  become  critical.  When  it  be- 
comes necessary  to  admonish  a  salesman,  it  is  easy  to 
dictate  a  sarcastic  or  "clever"  letter.  Every  com- 
munication that  goes  out  to  a  salesman,  and  every 
conference  that  the  sales  manager  has  with  any  of  his 
men,  should  be  gauged  by  the  question:     "Will  this 


216  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

put  the  salesman  in  a  frame  of  mind  to  get  business?" 
If  the  answer  is  not  an  emphatic  "yes"  the  manager 
should  adopt  different  tactics. 

10.  Necessity  of  inter-departmental  cooperation. — 
To  sell  goods  at  a  profit  is  the  ultimate  purpose  of 
every  organization,  whether  its  primary  purpose  is  the 
production  of  such  goods,  or  whether  it  is  concerned 
with  the  distribution  of  articles  that  are  produced  by 
others.  Accordingly,  the  efficiency  of  the  sales  de- 
partment is  a  matter  of  great  importance  to  every 
other  department.  This  efficiency  cannot  reach  its 
highest  development  unless  every  other  department 
cooperates  with  the  selling  organization  to  bring  about 
an  administration  of  the  selling  activities  that  will  be 
the  most  economical  and  efficient  possible. 

Selling  itself,  does  not  create  value ;  it  does  not  pro- 
duce the  kind  of  article  that  customers  want;  it  does 
not  insure  prompt  delivery,  harmonious  credit  rela- 
tions, or  the  right  kind  of  service  for  the  customers. 
All  these  things  must  be  secured  thru  the  cooperation 
of  the  other  departments  of  the  business,  and  it  is  just 
as  much  a  part  of  the  sales  manager's  work  to  secure 
this  cooperation  as  it  is  to  manage  his  men. 

11.  Advertising  department. — The  department 
most  closely  associated  with  the  sales  department  is 
the  advertising  department.  In  some  cases  the  adver- 
tising manager  is  subordinate  to  the  sales  manager, 
and  the  advertising  is  handled  in  the  sales  department. 
On  the  other  hand,  in  rare  instances,  the  sales  man- 
ager receives  his  orders  from  the  advertising  manager. 


THE  SALES  MANAGER  217 

The  most  common  form  of  organization,  however,  is 
that  in  which  the  sales  and  advertising  are  handled  by 
two  separate  departments  which  are  directed  by  heads 
of  equal  rank.  It  is  in  the  latter  case,  particularly, 
that  cooperation  and  harmony  are  necessary. 

Advertising  and  salesmanship  not  only  are  the  chief 
factors  in  distribution  but  they  are,  as  departments, 
intimately  related.  Advertising  is  generally  used  to 
pave  the  way  for  the  salesman,  to  facilitate  his  efforts 
and  to  supplement  his  work.  Therefore,  the  adver- 
tising plan  should  not  be  allowed  to  run  counter  to  the 
selling  plan.  It  goes  w^ithout  saying  that  cooperation 
cannot  be  one-sided.  The  advertising  manager  will 
often  have  a  good  idea  of  conditions  in  the  field  and 
not  infrequently  can  make  suggestions  in  regard  to 
bettering  them.  The  sales  department  should  extend 
to  the  advertising  department  the  same  cooperation 
which  it  expects  from  the  advertising  department. 
The  advertising  plans,  once  launched,  should  have  the 
ardent  and  sincere  support  of  the  selling  organization, 
both  in  the  office  and  in  the  field.  The  two  depart- 
ments, in  other  words,  should  strive  for  team  work 
that  shall  be  to  the  best  interest  of  the  house. 

12.  Production  department. — There  are  few  times 
during  the  year  when  the  orders  produced  by  the  sales 
department  and  the  goods  produced  by  the  manu- 
facturing department  are  exactly  equal.  Sometimes 
tlie  sales  department  allows  the  product  to  pile  up 
during  slack  seasons,  and  this  causes  the  production 
men  to  become  impatient  when  the  sales  department 


218  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

demands  increased  output  in  rush  times.  The  sales 
manager  should  endeavor  to  eliminate  this  attitude. 
All  matters  affecting  output  should  be  considered 
from  the  standpoint  of  selling,  as  well  as  from  that  of 
production,  and  the  sales  manager  should  see  that  the 
production  men  acquire  the  selling  point  of  view. 

Standardization  is  one  of  the  best  means  of  reduc- 
ing production  costs.  Carried  too  far,  however,  it  is 
likely  to  reduce  sales  also.  The  sales  manager  should 
curb  any  tendency  toward  over-standardization.  He 
should  know  enough  about  production,  however,  to 
realize  the  benefits  of  standardization  and  to  be  willing 
to  work  in  harmony  with  the  production  manager  to 
keep  down  the  costs. 

It  is  not  an  uncommon  tendency  for  a  concern  that 
has  built  up  its  reputation  and  sales  by  putting  out  a 
superior  product,  gradually  to  reduce  the  quality  of 
the  goods.  The  sales  manager  realizes,  probably  bet- 
ter than  anyone  else,  that  if  the  house  is  to  continue  to 
secure  an  increasing  volume  of  business,  it  must  hold 
up  the  quality  of  its  goods,  and  he  realizes  that  any 
other  tendency  should  be  combated. 

It  may  seem  a  far  cry  from  the  volume  of  sales  to 
the  labor  policy  of  the  firm.  The  sales  manager,  how- 
ever, will  realize  that  the  labor  policy  has  much  to  do 
with  the  quality  of  the  goods  produced.  If  the  policy 
of  the  house  toward  its  employes  is  a  liberal  one,  they 
will  show  a  spirit  of  personal  interest,  care  and  loyalty, 
and  a  desire  to  turn  out  the  best  product  possible.. 
But  a  house  with  a  dissatisfied  or  frequently  changing 


THE  SALES  MANAGER  219 

organization  will  find  it  difficult  to  keep  up  the  qual- 
ity of  its  product. 

13.  Credit  department. — While  a  settled  policy  in 
regard  to  payments  and  methods  of  handling  cred- 
its and  collections  is  desirable,  it  is  also  true  that  if 
there  is  too  rigid  an  enforcement  of  credit  rules,  the 
sales  department  will  be  seriously  handicapped,  and  a 
great  deal  of  its  work  will  be  nulhfied.  It  is  very 
often  the  best  kind  of  business  to  build  up  custom  by 
extending  a  line  of  credit  to  a  man  of  small  capital  but 
large  ability.  It  is  frequently  expedient  to  help  out 
a  slow-paj'ing  but  apparently  reliable  customer  with 
more  goods.  It  is  sometimes  important  from  the 
sales  manager's  point  of  view  that  collection  methods 
be  relaxed  in  order  that  customers  may  not  be  lost  in 
the  process  of  getting  in  the  money.  The  final  de- 
cision of  these  matters  must  be  left  to  the  credit  man, 
but  the  latter  should  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that  his 
policy  will  have  much  to  do  with  both  the  present  and 
the  future  volume  of  sales.  His  department  can  ren- 
der valuable  aid  in  the  increasing  of  this  vvolume. 

Here,  again,  the  cooperation  of  the  two  depart- 
ments should  be  hearty  and  complete.  The  credit 
manager  must  often  rely  upon  the  men  in  the  field  for 
information  concerning  the  moral  risk  on  purchasers 
who  possess  little  capital.  While  the  sales  manager 
should  jealously  guard  against  his  men's  time  being 
taken  up  to  too  great  an  extent  by  work  for  other  de- 
partments, it  is  only  right  that  he  should  have  the 
salesmen  handle  all  cases  of  payment  overdue  where 


220  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

the  reason  given  for  non-payment  is  that  the  goods  or 
service  was  unsatisfactory. 

14.  Handling  of  complaints. — Those  who  Handle 
complaints  must  have  the  selling  point  of  view  if  the 
complaints  are  to  be  treated  with  the  necessary  care 
and  breadth  of  vision.  There  is  constant  danger  that 
trouble  already  existing  between  the  house  and  the 
customer  may  be  made  worse.  The  improper  han- 
dling of  complaints  may  totally  destroy  the  good  busi- 
ness relations  between  the  house  and  the  customer. 
The  sales  manager  should  see  that  the  house  adopts  a 
rational  and  liberal  policy  toward  complaints.  He 
should  impress  upon  the  official  who  handles  these 
cases  the  fact  that  it  is  often  better  to  acknowledge 
that  the  customer  is  right  than  to  endeavor  to  prove 
that  he  is  wrong.  A  right  attitude  in  this  matter  is  a 
powerful  influence  in  building  up  trade. 

15.  Service  department. — Sometimes  the  salesmen 
are  given  more  than  goods  to  sell.  They  may  sell 
goods  plus  the  service  of  the  house  to  the  cus- 
tomer. The  performance  of  this  service  is  usually 
in  the  hands  of  a  separate  department,  tho  salesmen 
take  orders  for  the  service  of  the  house  as  well  as  for 
the  goods  it  sells.  The  service  may  in  some  instances 
take  the  form  of  repairs,  replacements  and  prompt 
supply  of  extra  parts,  or  it  may  take  the  form  of 
counsel  to  the  customer,  as  to  how  best  to  use  the 
goods,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  business.  In 
many  lines  the  service  department  opens  its  relations 
with  the  customer  by  acknowledging  the  order.     Serv- 


THE  SALES  MANAGER  221 

ice  is  in  many  cases  one  of  the  salesman's  strongest 
talking  points.  The  person  who  intends  to  buy  an 
automobile,  for  example,  will  always  look  into  the 
service  behind  the  car.  JNIost  makers  of  office  appli- 
ances lay  particular  stress  on  the  nature  of  the  service 
that  goes  with  their  machines. 

It  is  imperative  that  the  members  of  the  service  de- 
partment possess  the  selling  point  of  view.  A  service 
that  falls  short  of  the  customer's  expectations  is  much 
worse  than  no  service  at  all.  The  sales  manager 
should  see  to  it  that  a  spirit  of  real  helpfulness  and  sin- 
cerity pervades  the  service  department.  The  service 
may  be  of  such  a  nature  that,  while  it  adds  materially 
to  the  comfort,  pleasure,  convenience,  profit  or  safety 
of  the  customer,  it  nevertheless  costs  the  house  com- 
paratively little  money  or  effort.  Those  in  charge  of 
the  service  should  be  made  to  see  that  it  is  the  little 
things  that  create  a  feeling  of  friendliness  in  the  cus- 
tomer and  make  him  a  booster  for  the  house.  This  is 
an  age  of  service,  and  any  efficient  house  possessing  a 
spirit  of  real  helpfulness  to  its  customers  may  feel 
well  assured  of  increased  sales. 

16.  Finances. — A  great  many  houses  sell  their 
goods  on  a  basis  of  deferred  periodical  payments,  and 
almost  all  extend  more  or  less  liberal  credit  to  their 
customers.  In  all  except  a  strictly  cash  business,  it  is 
imperative  that  the  financial  management  look  ahead 
and  provide  for  the  financing  of  every  order  produced 
by  the  sales  department.  Raw  materials  must  be  paid 
for  in  most  cases  before  the  finished  product  is  sold, 

VI— 16 


222  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

and  in  trading  companies  the  product  sold  must  be 
paid  for  before  payments  from  its  customers  are  due. 
Where  the  volume  of  business  produced  by  the  sales 
department  is  fairly  constant,  and  collections  are 
ordinarily  good,  these  expenditures  will  be  taken  care 
of  by  collections.  If  there  is  a  rapidly  increasing 
volume  of  sales,  on  the  other  hand,  an  ever-increasing 
working  capital  must  be  provided,  if  orders  are  to  be 
filled  promptly  and  the  business  is  to  be  kept  in  a 
sound  condition.  This  means  that  there  must  be  close 
harmony  and  cooperation  and  a  thoro  understanding 
between  the  sales  and  the  financial  managers. 

17.  How  cooperation  is  secured. — The  development 
of  this  cooperation  between  the  sales  organization  and 
the  other  departments  of  a  business  cannot  be  left  to 
chance.  Unless  an  organization  is  composed  of  ex- 
ceptional individuals,  it  seems  natural  for  many  of 
the  employes  to  work  at  cross  purposes.  It  is  natural 
that  each  department  should  be  concerned  chiefly  with 
its  own  interests.  Its  members  are  prone  to  magnify 
the  importance  of  their  department  and  to  underesti- 
mate the  importance  of  the  others.  Interdepartmen- 
tal jealousy  and  the  lack  of  cooperation  are  unfortu- 
nately characteristic  of  many  establishments,  even 
when  their  organizations  are  highly  developed  and 
they  have  attained  a  large  measure  of  success. 

The  problem,  then,  is  largely  one  of  human  nature, 
and  whenever  this  is  true  the  solution  cannot  be  found 
by  a  resort  to  any  merely  mechanical  methods.  The 
function  of  system  in  business  is  to  secure  the  greatest 


THE  SALES  MANAGER  223 

results  with  the  least  expenditure  of  time  and  energy. 
But  no  system,  no  matter  how  well  planned  or  how 
carefully  installed,  can  be  effective  unless  all  who  are 
concerned  in  its  operation  cooperate  to  the  full  extent 
of  their  ability.  Human  nature  must  always  be  con- 
sidered, and  mere  mechanical  system  will  never  take 
the  place  of  tact  in  the  equipment  of  the  successful 
sales  manager.  There  are  too  many  sales  managers 
who,  tho  tactful  in  handling  their  men  and  in  dealing 
with  executives,  often  throw  diplomacy  to  the  winds 
in  dealing  with  other  department  heads  and  inside  em- 
ployes. Such  men,  also,  often  allow  a  harmful  spirit 
of  antagonism  toward  other  departments  to  exist  in 
those  under  them.  Whatever  other  methods  may  be 
employed  to  secure  departmental  cooperation,  they 
must  always  be  made  effective  by  the  exercise  of  tact 
on  the  part  of  the  sales  manager. 

In  addition  to  establishing  systems  that  will  keep 
him  closely  in  touch  with  the  progress  of  orders  thru 
the  office  and  with  any  delays,  complaints,  or  disagree- 
ments that  may  occur,  the  sales  manager  should  make 
it  a  point  to  secure  the  loyalty  of  the  other  department 
heads  and  of  the  general  body  of  office  employes,  to 
such  a  degree  that  they,  as  well  as  the  men  in  the  field, 
will  accord  him  their  hearty  cooperation. 

The  sales  manager  who  does  not  succeed  in  securing 
such  cooperation  from  the  various  departments  will 
be  fighting  against  heavy  odds  and  will  get  but  a  frac- 
tion of  the  business  to  which  the  ability  of  his  selling 
force  entitles  him.     While  salesmanship  counts  for 


224.  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

much,  and  an  efficient  selling  organization  is  essential 
to  the  success  of  any  concern,  good  salesmanship  must 
be  reenforced  by  prompt  shipments,  high  quality  and 
a  satisfactory  service  to  the  customer. 

REVIEW 

Discuss  sales  management  as  a  present-day  problem  and  show 
how  it  compares  with  the  sales  management  of  former  days. 

What  part  have  sellers  of  sjDCcialties  played  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  principles  of  sales  management? 

Enumerate  and  discuss  the  qualifications  of  the  sales  manager. 

To  what  extent  in  your  personal  opinion  should  the  sales 
manager  dominate  production;  credits;  shipping;  advertising; 
service? 


CHAPTER  II 

BUILDING  AN  ORGANIZATION— SELECTING  MEN 

1.  Planning  the  selling  campaign. — Before  any 
steps  can  be  taken  toward  the  building  of  a  selling  or- 
ganization, the  plan  of  the  selling  campaign  must  be 
mapped  out  and  the  trade  channels  selected  in  accord- 
ance with  the  principles  laid  dow^n  in  the  INIodern 
Business  Text  on  "^larketing  and  Merchandising." 
Not  until  this  has  been  done,  can  the  best  type  of  sales- 
man be  determined.  To  call  upon  dealers  in  small 
towns,  and  to  take  orders  for  case  lots,  will  require 
quite  a  different  type  of  salesman  than  is  required  to 
sell  the  same  goods  in  carload  lots  to  jobbers.  The 
man  fitted  to  place  exclusive  agencies  for  a  specialty 
might  be  of  little  use  in  a  campaign  in  which  salesmen 
would  have  to  go  directly  to  the  consumer  with  the 
same  specialty.  A  man  who  is  at  home  in  the  mining 
camps  of  the  West  would  be  out  of  place  in  a  mining 
company's  executive  offices  in  the  East,  altho  his  mis- 
sion in  either  case  might  be  to  secure  a  contract  for 
blasting-powder. 

This  distinction  is  twofold^  That  a  man  can  sell 
carload  lots  to  jobbers  does  not  indicate  that  he  would 
be  successful  in  selling  case  lots  to  dealers.  The  suc- 
cessful specialty  salesman  might  be  a  failure  at  placing 

225 


226  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

exclusive  agencies.  The  chances  are  that  the  sales- 
man who  was  liked  in  the  mining  company's  executive 
offices  would  not  arouse  a  spark  of  interest  on  the  part 
of  the  mine  superintendent.  The  general  principle  to 
be  observed  is  that  the  salesman  should  be  fitted  for 
his  territory  and  should  feel  at  home  with  the  class 
of  prospects  upon  whom  he  calls.  He  should  be  at 
least  of  the  same  caliber  as  his  prospects,  and  should 
know  something  of  their  characteristics  and  habits, 
and  should  enjoy  calling  upon  them. 

2.  Testing  out  selling  methods. — In  the  case  of  a 
new  proposition,  the  most  important  thing  in  develop- 
ing the  sales  organization  is  to  secure  a  few  men  who 
can  test  out  the  details  of  the  selling  plan  previously 
determined  upon,  make  such  changes  in  it  as  may  be 
necessary,  suggest  proper  equipment,  work  out  an  ef- 
fective selling  talk  and  devise  the  details  of  personal 
selling  methods;  and  who  can,  above  all,  set  a  pace 
and  show  what  can  be  done  in  the  way  of  sales. 

In  staple  lines,  too,  field  methods  must  be  worked 
out  if  the  new  proposition  is  to  compete  successfully 
with  older  lines.  For  example,  a  hardware  concern 
that  sold  a  new  and  ingenious  knife-sharpener,  met 
with  but  little  success  by  merely  turning  the  propo- 
sition over  to  their  regular  salesmen.  Finally,  one  of 
the  best  men  was  put  on  the  proposition  to  make  a 
study  of  it  and  work  out  successful  selling  methods. 
He  found  that  in  the  few  cases  where  sales  had  been 
made  the  knife-sharpener  had  not  moved  from  the 
dealers'  counters.     He  worked  out  a  method  of  tak- 


SELECTING  MEN  227 

ing  the  knives  of  the  dealer  and  his  clerks  and  sharp- 
ening them  with  a  few  deft  moves.  When  he  had 
aroused  their  interest,  he  encom-aged  each  of  them  to 
try  the  sharpener  on  his  knife.  He  then  secured  a 
promise  from  the  dealer  and  his  clerks  to  make  at  least 
twenty-four  demonstrations  to  each  dozen  of  the 
sharpeners. 

The  salesman's  second  visit  to  the  dealers  a  week 
later  revealed  the  fact  that  the  sharpeners  moved  rap- 
idly under  the  new  method  and  that  the  dealers,  as  a 
consequence,  were  ready  to  reorder.  This  method 
was  passed  on  to  the  other  salesmen  of  the  concern, 
and  enabled  every  one  of  them  to  make  large  sales  of 
the  sharpener.  A  great  many  sales  opportunities  are 
missed  because  special  selling  methods  of  this  sort  are 
not  worked  out. 

3.  Pacemaker  and  new  men. — A  salesman  of  the 
type  described  can  be  very  helpful  in  studying  the 
product,  helping  devise  sales  literature  and  preparing 
the  material  with  which  to  train  other  men.  His  ex- 
perimenting is  so  important  that  the  sales  manager 
who  is  developing  methods  for  the  selling  of  a  new 
commodity  can  well  afford  to  spend  some  time  with 
him  in  the  field.  In  that  way  only  will  the  sales  man- 
ager be  able  to  strengthen  the  weak  points  in  his  pros- 
pective campaign.  It  is  better  and  more  conservative 
to  give  this  salesman  time  to  get  into  the  producing 
class  before  trying  to  put  on  other  men. 

The  first  new  men  engaged  should  be  of  the  same 
mature  and  able  type  as  the  pacemaker.     In  some 


228  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

cases  this  testing  out  of  the  best  selling  method  may 
extend  over  a  long  period  of  time.  As  the  article  be- 
comes established,  the  selling  methods,  as  well  as  the 
methods  of  training  new  men,  will  become  more  or 
less  fixed.  When  this  point  is  reached,  the  type  of 
men  required  to  sell  the  proposition  gradually  changes. 
They  need  not  be  so  mature,  nor  need  they  ordinarily 
be  so  well  compensated  at  the  start,  as  were  the  sales- 
men first  employed.  Men  with  no  previous  selling 
experience  can  be  trained.  Eventually,  the  type  of 
men  desired  is  definitely  determined  and  the  methods 
of  their  selection  also  become  .more  or  less  well  defined. 

4.  Securing  salesmen  thru  advertisements. — Ad- 
vertising is  the  first  method  that  one  thinks  of  for 
getting  into  touch  with  recruits  for  the  sales  force. 
By  this  means  it  is  possible  to  get  some  very  good  ma- 
terial. Sales  managers  are  divided,  however,  as  to 
whether  it  pays  to  use  the  classified  columns  of  the 
newspapers.  Altho  some  hold  that  applicants  thru 
this  source  are  usually  unfitted  for  the  wo^*k,  very 
good  results  have  been  obtained  from  high-class 
papers.  Trade  papers  are  often  used  because  they 
are  in  touch  with  applicants  who  are  trained  in  the 
particular  lines  for  which  salesmen  are  desired.  An 
especially  wide-awake  and  ambitious  class  of  men  are 
secured  from  classified  advertisements  in  such  medi- 
ums as  Printers'"  Ink  and  System.  The  fact  that  a 
man  reads  such  mediums  proves  that  he  is  good  ma- 
terial. 

The  Buck  Stove  and  Range  Company  some  time 


SELECTING  MEN  229 

ago  ran  the  following  advertisement  in  newspapers 
in  various  parts  of  the  country : 

Attorneys  wanted  as  traveling  salesmen.  If  not  satis- 
fied with  your  profession,  why  not  enter  the  commercial 
field?  We  desire  tlie  services  of  several  educated  men  of  good 
appearance  and  address.  A  splendid  opportunity^  for  ener- 
getic, ambitious  men. 

The  company  explained  this  advertisement  by  say- 
ing that  a  great  many  bright  young  attorneys  found  it 
difficult  to  get  along  in  their  profession  and  that  if  the 
company  were  given  men  with  trained  thinking  pow- 
ers, it  could  make  high-grade  salesmen  of  them. 

5.  Securing  salesmen  from  the  inside  organiza- 
tion.— The  selecting  of  sales  material  from  within  an 
organization  insures  that  the  recruit  will  know  a  great 
deal  about  the  product  he  is  to  sell.  For  this  reason 
it  is  a  good  plan,  where  the  commodities  are  intricate 
or  technical,  to  choose  salesmen  from  within  the  con- 
cern. One  large  mechanical  specialty  house  follows 
this  method  almost  entirely.  The  sales  manager  picks 
the  likely  men  from  various  parts  of  the  organization, 
calls  them  into  his  office,  tells  them  that  they  are  being 
trained  for  the  selling  organization  and  then  puts  them 
to  work  in  the  shop  for  a  course  of  training. 

Sales  IManager  Taylor  of  the  American  Steel  and 
Wire  Company  makes  the  statement: 

We  hire  our  office  boys  with  a  view  to  their  becoming 
salesmen  and  then  develop  them  in  the  office.  In  picking  the 
boys,  we  get  those  of  big  stature,  coming  from  good  families 
and  having  a   grammar   school   education.     By   promoting 


230  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

our  men  from  office  boys  to  salesmen,  step  after  step,  we  find 
that  they  stay  with  us  and  feel  that  the  experience  they  have 
in  our  office  is  a  reason  for  making  their  future  with  us. 

The  Sherwin-Williams  Company  of  Cleveland  also 
recruits  its  selling  force  largely  from  the  inside  ranks. 
The  sales  manager  of  the  Winton  Motor  Car  Com- 
pany of  Cleveland  states  that  many  of  his  best  sales- 
men were  developed  from  chauffeurs  and  mechanics 
who  understood  both  human  nature  and  the  car  they 
were  selling. 

6.  Obtaining  salesmen  from  competing  organiza- 
tions.— Unless  the  salesman  from  a  competing  organ- 
ization comes  to  the  sales  manager  on  his  own  initia- 
tive, it  is  rather  unsatisfactory  to  recruit  the  sales 
force  from  rival  organizations.  The  ethics  of  the 
practice  may  well  be  questioned,  and  the  salesman 
who  has  shown  disloyalty  to  one  house  by  going  over 
to  a  competitor  may  show  disloyalty  to  another. 
These  objections  do  not  always  hold,  however,  and  the 
advantage  of  the  method  is  that  the  probable  value  of 
a  man  thus  secured  may  be  gauged  with  considerable 
accuracy. 

7.  Obtaining  salesmen  from  non-competing  organ- 
izations.— A  good  recruiting  source  is  the  non-com- 
peting selling  organization  which  for  some  reason  or 
other  is  not  doing  sufficient  business  to  hold  its  good 
men.  For  example,  when  the  stock  exchanges  were 
closed  at  the  opening  of  the  great  European  war,  and 
the  bottom  fell  out  of  the  bond  market  the  Addresso- 


SELECTING  MEN  231 

graph  Company  of  Chicago  approached  men  who 
had  been  selHng  bonds  on  commission,  and  thus  se- 
cured a  number  of  good  salesmen.  Being  accustomed 
to  meet  men  of  prominence,  the  former  bond  salesmen 
took  readily  to  selling  addressographs  to  large  con- 
cerns. 

One  of  the  most  successful  sales  managers  in  the 
automobile  business  recruited  his  sales  force  in  the 
early  stages  of  the  industry  by  sending  inquiries  in 
regard  to  specialties,  such  as  safes,  typewriters  or 
adding  machines,  and  having  the  salesmen  call  upon 
him.  If,  in  the  course  of  the  presentation,  he  recog- 
nized the  ear-marks  of  a  real  salesman,  he  would  offer 
the  man  a  connection. 

JNIr.  J.  K.  Fraser,  who  had  a  good  deal  to  do  with 
the  early  success  of  Sapolio,  used  to  make  it  a  point 
to  ask  friendly  customers  about  the  men  who  called 
upon  them  from  houses  in  other  lines,  and  quite  often 
he  picked  salesmen  in  this  way. 

8.  Obtaining  salesmen  thru  missionary  work  of  the 
sales  force. — If  the  members  of  an  organization  are 
proud  of  their  connections  and  loyal  to  them,  they  will 
continually  be  on  the  lookout  for  recruits  among  the 
men  whom  they  meet  on  the  road  selling  other  articles, 
among  the  clerks  or  other  office  men  whom  they  meet 
in  the  course  of  their  work,  and  among  their  friends. 
In  many  lines  experience  has  indicated  that  this  is  the 
best  method  of  securing  new  members  for  the  selling 
force.     To  quote  Mr.  J.  K.  Fraser: 


232  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

I  think  it  is  safe  to  say  that  in  most  cases  the  best  men 
are  recruited  thru  the  missionary  work  of  the  selHng  organi- 
zation. The  best  men  we  get  come  from  the  recommenda- 
tions of  our  salesmen  and  are  in  most -cases  their  personal 
friends,  attracted  by  the  success  they  are  meeting  in  selling 
our  line.  On  the  assumption  that  "birds  of  a  feather  flock 
together,"  we  find  it  pays  when  we  get  one  strong  salesman 
to  look  up  his  friends.  In  most  cases  they  are  of  the  same 
caliber  and  have  the  same  qualifications,  so  that  when  they 
are  employed  they  make  equally  good  salesmen. 

The  ^National  Biscuit  Company  finds  some  of  its 
best  men  in  the  grocery  stores  where  its  products  are 
sold  over  the  counter.  Salesmen  of  the  company  are 
instructed  to  keep  a  weather  eye  open,  wherever  they 
go,  for  good  selling  timber.  When  men  are  secured 
in  this  way  they  feel  that  they  have  made  a  step  for- 
ward, and  most  of  them  are  satisfied  to  remain  with 
the  organization  a  considerable  length  of  time. 

Some  specialty  houses  which  require  a  particularly 
high  grade  of  salesmen,  offer  the  members  of  their 
forces  a  bonus  for  securing  a  recruit  who  makes  good. 

9.  College  men  as  salesmen. — Some  concerns  de- 
sire to  secure  college  men  for  their  sales  force.  With 
this  end  in  view  they  place  advertisements  in  the  col- 
lege papers  which  are  read  b}^  both  the  students  and 
the  alumni.  They  write  to  college  secretaries  to  se- 
cure information  with  regard  to  recent  college  gradu- 
ates, especially  men  who  worked  their  way  thru  col- 
lege. One  firm  whose  work  calls  for  salesmen  pos- 
sessed of  a  broad-gauged  knowledge  of  business,  keeps 
in  close  touch  with  the  employment  bureaus  at  the 


SELECTING  MEN  233 

various  university  schools  of  commerce  thruout  the 
country.  Another  concern  secures  the  university 
year-books  pubhshed  by  the  student  bodies,  which 
contain  the  pictures  and  biographies  of  the  members 
of  the  graduatmg  classes.  This  information  furnishes 
a  basis  for  selecting  the  men  to  whom  a  selling  connec- 
tion is  offered. 

10.  Previous  selling  experience. — Men  recruited 
from  the  colleges  can  have  had  little  or  no  previous 
experience  in  salesmanship,  except  possibly  in  the  sell- 
ing of  small  specialties  during  vacations.  JNIen  se^ 
lected  from  inside  the  organization  will  have  had  no* 
previous  selling  experience  whatever.  The  lawyers 
whom  the  Buck  Stove  and  Range  Company  might 
secure  thru  the  advertisement  already  mentioned, 
would  have  had  no  previous  experience  that  would  be 
of  value  in  selling,  other  than  the  practice  in  the  art 
of  persuasion  that  they  have  obtained  in  courts  of 
law.  To  insist  upon  previous  selling  experience  was 
formerly  a  hard  and  fast  rule  in  many  concerns,  and 
still  is  in  some.  A  great  many  progressive  houses,  on 
the  other  hand,  have  come  to  look  upon  an  applicant's 
lack  of  previous  selling  experience  as  an  advantage 
rather  than  a  drawback,  for,  in  such  case,  the  pros- 
pective salesman  has  no  false  ideas  or  mistaken  im- 
pressions that  must  be  rooted  out  before  he  can  be 
instilled  with  the  principles,  ideals  and  policies  of  the 
house.     His  mind  is  virgin  soil. 

A  man  who  is  trained  to  sell  one  thing  and  who 
has  never  sold  any  other  is  not  so  likely  to  change 


234  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

from  one  organization  to  another  as  the  man  who  has 
had  a  varied  experience,  which  gives  him  confidence  in 
his  abihty  to  sell  any  commodity.  Finally,  and  per- 
haps most  important  of  all,  the  firm  that  trains  the 
man  of  no  previous  selling  experience  gets  his  first 
loyalty  and  enthusiasm. 

11.  Methods  of  selection. — If  the  sales  force  is  to 
be  kept  fairly  permanent  and  the  changes  necessary 
to  keep  its  ranks  full  are  to  be  few,  and  if  the  training 
process  is  not  to  be  wasted  on  poor  material,  great 
care  must  be  taken  in  the  selection  of  new  salesmen. 
Just  as  there  are  those  who  claim  that  the  clever  sales- 
man can  determine  what  manner  of  man  his  prospect 
is  by  observing  the  contour  and  profile  of  his  face  and 
the  shape  of  his  head,  so  there  are  some  who  claim 
that  the  sales  manager  can,  by  a  kind  of  character 
analysis,  determine  the  merits  of  a  prospective  sales- 
man. A  certain  manager  who  has  been  very  suc- 
cessful in  the  selection  of  salesmen  has  a  theory  that 
long,  tapering  fingers  are  indicative  of  tact  and  di- 
plomacy, and  that  a  head  set  well  forward  denotes 
keen  observation.  One  of  the  largest  automobile  com- 
panies in  the  countrj^  has  in  the  past  based  the  selection 
of  its  salesmen  to  some  extent  on  an  observation  of  the 
nerve  centers  of  the  hand. 

There  are  a  number  of  such  theories  and  systems, 
and  they  are  more  or  less  systematically  followed  by 
some  sales  managers.  On  the  other  hand.  President 
Cottingham  of  the  Sherwin-Williams  Company  says, 
that  no  hard  and  fast  rules  can  be  laid  down  for  se- 


SELECTING  MEN  235 

lecting  the  successful  salesman.  All  that  one  can  do, 
he  claims,  is  to  come  as  close  as  possible  by  relying  on 
common  horse-sense  to  steer  him  straight.  A  large 
majority  of  the  able  sales  managers  agree  with  this 
view.  This  does  not  mean  that  an  applicant  cannot 
be  judged  fairly  satisfactorily  by  means  of  the  essen- 
tial qualifications  of  a  salesman,  which  are  set  forth 
in  the  first  part  of  this  book,  nor  does  it  mean  that 
there  are  not  certain  definite  methods  of  securing  in- 
formation on  which  a  sound  judgment  may  be  based. 
Professor  Walter  Dill  Scott,  who  did  some  im- 
portant personnel  work  for  the  United  States  Army 
during  the  war,  has  worked  out  a  number  of  in- 
genious oral  and  written  examinations  designed  to 
test  one's  accuracy,  mental  alertness,  ability  to  reason 
and  the  like.  They  played  no  inconsiderable  part  in 
the  selection  of  officers  during  the  war.  They  had 
been  so  well  received  that  New  York  University  and 
Columbia  University  are  using  them  to  replace  in  part, 
and  to  supplement  the  more  formal,  old-time  entrance 
examination.  There  are  those  who  contend  that  they 
might  supplement,  in  a  valuable  way,  the  judgment 
of  the  sales  manager.  There  is  this  objection  to  their 
use:  the  more  able  and  experienced  a  salesman  is, 
the  more  likely  is  he  to  fear  going  to  work  for  a  house 
which  indulges  in  new,  strange,  and  to  him  at  least, 
highly  theoretical  practices.  So,  until  such  time  as 
Professor  Scott's  tests  become  so  well  known  and  es- 
tablished that  every  salesman  is  familiar  with  them 
and  must  needs  admit  the  sanity  of  their  being  applied 


236  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

to  him,  there  is  a  danger  that  their  use  might  result 
in  the  loss  of  good  new  material  for  the  sales  force. 

On  the  other  hand,  Professor  Scott  has  devised  a 
number  of  charts  to  be  used  by  executives  or  others 
in  sizing  up  men.  These  charts,  by  directing  atten- 
tion to  the  qualities  to  be  looked  for  in  the  person 
being  examined  and  obliging  the  examiner  to  indicate 
in  what  degree  he  believes  the  quality  to  be  possessed, 
will  enable  executives  who  are  asked  to  size  up  pros- 
pective salesmen  to  give  the  sales  manager  a  more  in- 
telligent judgment  than  would  otherwise  be  possible. 
In  using  them,  however,  diplomacy  would  seem  to 
dictate  that  they  be  filled  out  after  the  prospective 
salesman  has  left  the  executive  and  that  the  pros- 
pective salesman  at  no  time  know  that  they  are  being 
used. 

12.  How  does  the  salesman  sell  his  own  services? — 
There  is  probably  no  better  way  of  finding  out  the 
abihty  of  a  man  as  a  salesman  than  to  observe  him 
closely  in  his  efforts  to  sell  his  services.  What  sort 
of  a  presentation  does  he  make?  Are  his  facts  well 
marshalled  and  are  his  selling  points  well  stated? 
Sales  managers  are  adopting  this  more  and  more  as 
one  of  their  most  important  tests  in  selecting  men. 
The  sales  manager  will  make  a  mental  note  of  the 
applicant's  first  impression  upon  him.  In  the  course 
of  the  interview  he  will  endeavor  to  discourage  the 
applicant's  aspiration  to  join  the  organization.  Then 
he  will  observe  closely  just  how  the  man  acts  under 
this  discouragement. 


SELECTING  MEN  237 

A  manager  for  a  certain  big  life  insurance  company 
tests  a  man's  determination  and  self-confidence  by 
picturing  to  him  the  darkest  aspects  of  selling  life 
insurance.  He  tells  the  man  of  the  hundreds  of  sales- 
men who  fail,  of  the  rebuffs  he  will  meet  and  the  dis- 
courtesy he  must  face.  If  the  applicant  appears  to 
be  discouraged  by  this  recital,  the  manager  considers 
him  unfit  for  life  insurance  work. 

Another  sales  manager  uses  a  carefully  chosen  list 
of  questions.  Perhaps  the  most  important  is  that 
which  requires  the  applicant  to  tell  why  he  thinks  he 
can  sell  the  commodity  in  question.  His  answer  does 
much  to  reveal  his  attitude  toward  salesmanship  in 
general,  and  leads  to  an  unguarded  discussion  of  his 
ambitions. 

13.  Why  does  he  desire  to  join  the  organization? — 
The  reason  given  for  the  desire  to  join  the  selling  or- 
ganization should  be  carefully  considered  by  the  sales 
manager.  A  remark  which  is  commonly  made  by 
applicants  for  selling  positions  is:  "I  understand 
that  there  is  big  money  to  be  made  in  this  line."  Nat- 
urally, possible  earnings  will  be  an  important  consid- 
eration with  every  applicant;  but  it  is  a  peculiar  taut 
that  in  selling,  as  .in  any  other  business,  the  man  who 
takes  up  the  work  because  there  is  big  money  in  it 
is  not  always  the  one  to  realize  the  large  earnings. 
Furthermore,  while  earning  possibilities  in  different 
lines  vary  somewhat,  there  is  no  line  so  devoid  of  large 
eaj'ning  possibihties  that  some  men  in  it  are  not  en- 
joying large  incomes,  nor  is  there  any  line  so  lucrative 

VI— 17 


238  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

but  that  the  incomes  of  some  of  the  men  in  it  provide 
only  the  barest  necessities  of  life.  And  it  will  be 
found  that  a  large*  proportion  of  these  mediocre  men 
entered  the  business  solely  because  "there  was  big 
money  in  it." 

The  opportunities  for  large  earnings  offered  by  a 
selling  proposition  should  never  be  the  sole  reason — 
or  the  preeminent  one — for  a  man's  desire  to  take  it 
up.  The  sales  manager  should  give  the  "big  money" 
man  some  straight  talk  along  this  line.  He  should 
point  out  that  the  first  thing  for  the  applicant  to  de- 
cide, is  whether  or  not  he  sincerely  likes  the  proposi- 
tion and  will  put  his  whole  heart  and  soul  behind  it; 
and  that  the  second  thing  to  decide  is  whether  or  not 
he  possesses  the  qualifications  and  training  necessary 
to  sell  the  particular  proposition  under  consideration. 

The  applicant  whose  desire  to  join  a  selling  organ- 
ization arises  chiefly  from  the  belief  that  the  product 
is  the  best  in  its  field,  that  there  is  a  waiting  demand 
for  it  which  he  can  reach  and  satisfy,  that  the  house 
policies  behind  the  product  are  right  and  ethically 
high,  that  the  cooperation  given  by  the  house  to  its 
salesmen  will  insure  his  success,  and  that  he  is  peculi- 
arly well  qualified  by  training  and  experience  to  sell 
that  particular  article,  will  generally  be  found  among 
those  who  eventually  earn  the  "big  money." 

14.  Preliminary  correspondence. — The  sales  man- 
ager will  find  it  advantageous  to  have  some  prelimi- 
nary correspondence  with  the  prospective  salesman  if 
he  lives  at  a  distance.     After  the  application  has  been 


SELECTING  MEN  239 

received  the  writer  should  be  sent  a  formal  application 
blank.  This  blank  with  the  previous  correspondence 
will  serve  to  determine  whether  or  not  the  sales  man- 
ager will  be  justified  in  paying  the  expense  of  a  visit 
of  the  applicant  to  headquarters  for  the  purpose  of 
an  interview.  When  the  ajiplicant  is  situated  where 
he  can  reach  the  sales  manager's  office  with  little  or 
no  expense,  the  invitation  to  call  may  follow  the  first 
letter.  Then,  if  he  makes  a  good  impression,  the  for- 
mal application  will  be  turned  over  to  him  after  tlie 
first  interview  with  the  request  that  he  either  send  it 
in  or  bring  it  in  person. 

15.  Ifiterviewing  the  applicant. — The  first  inter- 
views should  be  friendly  and  informal  from  the  begin- 
ning, and  it  should  be  interspersed  with  such  ques- 
tions as  have  been  indicated,  and  others  of  a  similar 
nature.  The  applicant  should  be  encouraged  to  give 
an  accurate  account  of  his  business  life;  the  sales 
manager  should  take  care  to  observe  whether  any 
lapses  of  time  are  left  unaccounted  for.  It  is  advis- 
able to  ask  the  applicant  as  a  test  question  whetlier 
or  not  he  stands  ready  to  furnish  a  bond,  and  this  irre- 
spective of  whether  or  not  a  bond  is  required.  The 
reason  that  a  man  gives  for  wishing  to  make  a  change 
will  furnish  a  side-light  on  his  character  and  the  truth- 
fulness of  his  answers  can  usually  be  gauged  by  their 
straightfoi*wardness.  To  quote  JNIr.  Cottingham 
again : 

In  selecting  salesmen  I  endeavor  to  find  out  whether  the 
applicant  is  dead  in  earnest  in  seeking  a  position  with  us. 


240  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

I  try  to  find  out  if  he  has  a  consuming  desire  to  make  a 
success  of  himself  in  the  world,  or  if  he  is  merely  looking  for 
a  job.  I  want  to  know  if  our  business  and  the  position  he 
seeks,  appeal  to  him  as  the  right  place  to  work  out  a  business 
career. 

The  sales  manager  can  test  the  apphcant's  resource- 
fulness by  outlining  some  situation  commonly  met  in 
the  field,  and  asking  him  how  he  would  handle  it. 
For  example,  the  Addressogi'aph  Company  selects 
some  dealers  in  the  trade  with  which  the  applicant  is 
familiar.  An  imaginary  presentation  is  described, 
carrying  the  applicant  up  to  the  point  where  the  dealer 
makes  some  such  statement  as:  "I  can  fully  appre- 
ciate the  value  of  your  proposition,  but  I  have  been  in 
this  business  now  for  forty  years  and,  as  you  see,  have 
the  best  business  in  town.  I  have  never  advertised  at 
all,  yet  my  competitor  down  the  street  spends  a  great 
deal  for  publicity  of  all  kinds  and  does  about  half  as 
much  business.  So  j^ou  see,  I  would  not  consider  it, 
and  even  if  I  were  inclined  to  advertise,  my  clerks 
can  do  the  addressing  in  their  spare  time."  The  ap- 
plicant is  then  asked  how  he  would  handle  this  situ- 
ation. His  answer,  tho  it  is  not  expected  that  it  will 
be  a  finished  one,  will  show  how  resourceful  he  is. 

The  sales  manager  should  have  the  applicant  come 
back  to  his  office  several  times  on  one  pretext  or  an- 
other, to  discover  whether  or  not  he  "wears  well." 
This  is  especially  important  if  the  line  is  a  staple  one 
where  customers  are  to  be  visited  repeatedly,  for  here 
the  personality  with  lasting  qualities — with  the  capac- 


SELECTING  MEN  241 

ity  for  making  and  holding  friends — is  of  vital  im- 
portance. It  goes  without  saying  that  the  specialty 
salesman,  too,  should  have  qualities  that  wear  well. 
It  is  a  good  idea  to  introduce  the  applicant  around  the 
office  and  pass  him  from  one  to  another  for  short 
friendly  chats  so  that  their  impressions  may  be  added 
to  those  of  the  sales  manager. 

There  will  undoubtedly  be  applicants  whose  ability 
to  do  business  will  be  unquestioned,  but  whose  ability 
to  do  it  on  a  right  basis  may  well  be  questioned  be- 
cause of  a  flashy  cleverness,  or  an  attitude  toward 
their  profession  which  is  perhaps  not  very  high  ethic- 
ally. These  considerations  should  always  be  carefully 
weighed;  sometimes  they  may  be  frankly  discussed 
with  the  applicant. 

Naturally,  the  applicant  for  a  salesman's  position 
will,  except  in  rare  instances,  appear  at  his  best.  He 
will  be  freshly  shaved,  his  linen  will  be  spotless,  his 
clothes  freshly  brushed  and  his  shoes  carefully  shined. 
There  is,  however,  a  "dressed-for-the-occasion"  look 
which  the  sales  manager  will  learn  to  recognize. 
There  is,  on  the  other  hand,  a  certain  well-groomed 
appearance — the  result  of  habit — which  cannot  be  ac- 
quired in  a  day  and  which  will  be  in  evidence  even 
tho  a  man's  clothing  be  not  in  the  best  of  condition. 
Such  habitual  carefulness  includes  care  of  the  teeth, 
hair,  finger-nails  and  skin.  The  quality  and  condi- 
tion of  the  linen,  shoes  and  clothing  that  a  man  wears 
largely  indicate  a  man's  business  and  social  caliber. 
Often  an  applicant  who  shows  up  strong  in  an  inter- 


242  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

view  at  the  sales  manager's  desk,  upon  being  invited 
to  a  more  or  less  exclusive  hotel  for  a  meal  will  appear 
so  unaccustomed  to  places  of  the  kind,  and  will  show 
so  evident  an  embarrassment  and  indecision  as  to  the 
proper  thing  to  do,  as  to  cause  the  sales  manager  to 
change  his  opinion  about  him. 

The  importance  of  these  more  or  less  social  consid- 
erations will  vary  according  to  the  proposition  to  be 
sold.  A  salesman  whose  business  is  with  the  retail 
grocery  trade  does  not  require  an  intimate  knowledge 
of  the  social  amenities;  on  the  other  hand,  the  sales- 
man who  calls  on  presidents  and  other  executives  of 
large  corporations  should  be  able  to  take  luncheon 
gracefully  at  the  other's  club,  or  even  at  his  home. 
And  the  man  who  is  not  as  well  dressed  and  as  well 
groomed  as  the  executives  upon  whom  he  calls,  will 
usually  show  a  lack  of  poise  and  be  ill  at  ease  in  his 
prospect's  presence.  The  fact  is,  he  is  lacking  in  an 
important  essential  for  that  kind  of  selling  work. 
Similarly,  a  mature  man  with  a  great  many  years  of 
business  experience  behind  him,  but  whose  earnings 
have  been  far  below  the  amount  he  may  justly  be 
expected  to  make  from  his  proposition,  will  generally 
be  found  to  possess  a  fundamental  business  weakness 
which  will  prevent  his  succeeding  with  any  proposi- 
tion. This  is  not  always  true,  but  the  sales  manager 
is  justified  in  assuming  that  it  is  the  case  unless  there 
is  substantial  evidence  to  the  contrary. 

A  man's  ability  to  produce  a  large  volume  of  busi- 
ness should  not  be  the  only  measure  of  his  right  to  join 


SELECTING  MEN  243 

a  selling  organization  or  to  stay  with  it ;  the  question 
should  always  be  considered,  whether  he  lends  dignity 
to  his  house  and  whether,  as  a  representative,  he  does 
his  concern  a  lasting  good. 

Probably  the  best  measure  of  a  salesman's  value  to 
his  house  is:  What  kind  of  impression  does  he  leave 
on  those  whom  he  fails  to  sell? 

16.  Refererices. — Just  as  soon  as  the  formal  appli- 
cation has  been  filled  in,  the  references  given  by  the 
salesman  should  be  investigated.  There  is  great  di- 
versity of  opinion  as  to  the  value  of  commendatory 
letters  from  those  to  whom  the  applicant  refers  the 
sales  manager.  It  is  claimed  that  there  are  but  few 
people  who  will  give  any  but  a  favorable  reference  in 
such  a  case,  and  it  is  certainly  true  that  most  refer- 
ences do  not  contain  a  bald  statement  of  bad  qualities, 
even  when  the  applicant  possesses  them.  Letters  of 
recommendation  are  for  the  most  part  favorable,  tho 
in  varying  degree.  The  sales  manager  will  have  no 
trouble  in  distinguishing  between  the  genial  letter  that 
condemns  by  faint  praise,  and  the  sincerely  enthusi- 
astic letter  that  really  indicates  a  good  oj^inion.  Fur- 
thermore, the  character  of  the  references  will  go  to 
show  the  applicant's  standing  in  the  community. 

17.  Apj)lication  blanks. — A  form  of  application  for 
prospective  salesmen  which  is  in  use  in  the  sales  de- 
partment of  a  highly  successful  specialty  organiza- 
tion is  here  given.  It  is  recommended  for  use.  with 
any  changes,  of  course,  that  the  individual  business 
may  render  necessary. 


244 


SALES  MANAGEMENT 


PROSPECTIVE  SALESMAN'S  RECORD 
BLANK 

(Ordinarily   this    blank   should    be    accompanied    by    a   letter    setting 
forth  more  fully  your  experience,  aims  and  personal  characteristics.) 

Name  in  full 

Temporary  address  (how  long)   

Permanent  address 

Age Height 

Religion     

Married    or    single Nationality 

If  married,  how  many  children  ? 

How  many  people  are  dependent  on  you  ? 

Present  occupation 

Name  and  line  of  business  of  concern  you  are  with 

Where  and  in  what  way  have  you  been  employed  during  your 
last  five  positions? 


Weight , 


(C 

live  the  last  place 

on  the  first  line  and  work  backwar 

d) 

Date 

Employer 

Business 

Address 

Position 

Salary 

5    

4   

3   

<2 

1    

Give  reasons  for  leaving  each  employer.     Answer  in  each  case  sepa- 
rately and  specifically. 

5 

4 

3 

2 

1 

Can  you  furnish  a  bond.^*.  .  . 

Education     

What  have  you  studied  since  leaving  school,  and  how  much.'* 
What  do  you  read  regularly  .'^ 
How  do  you  use  your  spare  time.? 


SELECTING  MEN  245 

Business  experience 

Give  three  references 

Have  you  ever   had  a  serious  ilhiess? 

What  is  the  state  of  your  health  at  present? 

Arc  you  an  occasional  user  of  alcoholic  beverages? 

What  and  how  much  ? 

Are  you  a  member  of  any  club  or  society? 

Specify    

Average  earnings  per  week  for  last  year For 

last  two  years For  last  five  years 

How  much  income  must  you  have  to  meet  your  necessary  liv- 


ing expenses? 


What  amount  of  earnings  would  satisfy  you? 

Do  you  believe  in  saving  any  surplus? 

Reasons  for  changing  occupation 

Why  are  you  a  salesman  or  why  do  you  desire  to  become  a 
salesman?    

What  do  you  consider  your  strongest  qualifications  in  sell- 
ing? 

What  do  you  think  you  lack? 

Reasons  for  wishing  to  connect  with  this  concern 

How  soon  could  you  actively  take  up  our  work? 

Territory    preferred 

18.  Young  men  j^ref erred. — Young  men  are  to  be 
Ijreferred  as  recruits.  There  is  a  longer  period  of 
service  ahead  of  them.  They  have  greater  possibili- 
ties for  improvement 'and  development  than  older 
men,  whose  habits  of  thought  and  action  have  become 
fixed.  The  money  invested  in  training  a  man  twenty- 
seven  years  old,  is  much  better  spent  than  the  same 
amount  would  be  in  training  a  man  fifty  years  old, 
who  could  turn  in  the  same  amount  of  business. 
Furthermore  there  is  always  the  danger  that  an  appli- 
cant who  has  not  made  a  good  connection  before  he  is 


246  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

thirty  or  thirty-five  years  of  age,  may  have  some  char- 
acteristics that  will  tend  to  make  him  a  disloyal  sales- 
man or  a  drifter.  The  drifter  may  be  a  good  sales- 
man and  may  be  doing  himself  good  in  his  drifting, 
but  no  sales  manager  wants  to  turn  his  organization 
into  a  training  school.  Other  things  being  equal,  re- 
cruits should  be  picked  whose  futures  are  before  them 
and  who  are  willing  to  cast  their  lots  with  the  house. 

This  matter  of  selecting  men  for  the  selling  organ- 
ization is  one  to  which  the  sales  manager  may  well 
give  some  of  his  best  energy.  Eveiy  man  who  comes 
into  the  organization,  takes  the  training  provided  and 
starts  out  for  his  ten-itory,  represents  an  investment 
on  the  part  of  the  company  of  actual  dollars  and 
cents.  Every  time  a  salesman  leaves  the  organiza- 
tion the  money  invested  goes  with  him.  Then,  too, 
it  costs  just  as  much  to  pay  the  expenses  of  a  mediocre 
or  unsuccessful  salesman  as  it  does  to  finance  a  suc- 
cessful one,  and  the  overhead  properly  chargeable 
against  the  former  is  often  larger  than  in  the  case  of 
the  able  man.  Furthermore,  since  territory  and  pros- 
pects are  distinct  assets  to  any  house,  few  concerns 
can  afford  to  have  their  prospects  visited  by  mediocre 
salesmen  or  to  have  their  advertising  backed  up  by 
any  but  the  best  representatives  obtainable. 

REVIEW 

What  are  necessary  preliminaries  to  the  organization  of  a 
selling  force? 

How  would  you  go  about  devising  and  developing  selling 
methods  for  any  new  product  you  have  in  mind? 


SELECTING  MEN  24T 

Enumerate  various  methods  of  securing  salesmen  and  indi- 
cate the  advantages  of  each  method. 

Discuss  education  and  previous  experience  required  of  sales- 
men. 

Would  you  favor  developing  salesmen  from  the  inside  ?     Why  ? 

How  would  you  as  a  sales  manager  go  about  determining  the 
futures  of  applicants  for  sales  positions  ? 

Is  selling  ability  the  only  thing  you  would  consider? 


CHAPTER  III 

BUILDING  AN  ORGANIZATION— TRAINING 
SALESMEN 

1.  Need  for  training  methods. — A  sales  manager 
for  a  cotton-print  house  who  had  been  ridicuhng  the 
idea  of  spending  time  and  money  to  give  new  sales- 
men a  definite  training  course,  states  that  on  an  aver- 
age only  one  in  ten  of  the  men  he  added  to  his  selling 
organization  eventually  made  good.  In  strong  con- 
trast to  this  the  sales  manager  of  a  certain  high-grade 
specialty  business,  whose  training  methods  were  un- 
der discussion,  was  able  to  point  to  a  class  of  twenty 
men  turned  out  six  months  before,  all  the  members 
of  which  were  still  with  the  concern  and  producing 
business.  There  was  a  time  when  a  man  with  more 
or  less  natural  selling  ability  was  hired,  given  a  sample 
case  and  started  for  his  territory  with  a  few  parting 
instructions.  This  method  is  recognized  today  as 
being  wasteful  of  both  salesmanship  material  and 
territory.  The  salesman  as  well  as  the  sales  manager 
realizes  the  advantages  of  formal  training  prepara- 
tory to  field  work  and,  with  few  exceptions,  the  able 
salesman  who  joins  a  new  organization  will  welcome 
the  opportunity  to  enter  the  training  class. 

2.  The  man  in  charge  of  training. — Too  great  em- 

248 


TRAINING  SALESMEN  249 

phasis  cannot  be  laid  on  the  necessity  of  having  in 
charge  of  the  training  class  a  leader  who  will  win  the 
respect  and  friendship  of  its  members.  He  should 
be  a  man  who  has  seen  active  service  in  selling  the  com- 
pany's product.  He  should  have  a  thoro  knowledge 
of  the  product ;  a  thoro  knowledge  of  the  best  selling 
methods  as  they  have  been  worked  out  by  the  men  in 
the  field  and  a  thoro  knowledge  of  the  fundamental 
principles  of  salesmanship.  In  addition,  he  should 
possess  a  teacher's  mind  and  the  ability  to  lay  out 
comprehensive  and  interesting  lectm-es.  The  train- 
ing class  is  of  sufficient  importance  to  warrant  the  sales 
manager's  taking  charge  of  it  himself  if  he  cannot  find 
an  assistant  who  measures  up  to  these  requirements. 

3.  Divisions  of  training. — There  should  be  two 
main  divisions  of  the  course  of  training:  instruction 
at  the  home  office,  and  coaching  in  field  work.  The 
house  instruction  may  be  divided  into  a  study  of  the 
fundamental  principles  of  salesmanship  and  a  con- 
sideration of  the  selling  methods  of  the  particular 
product  in  question,  the  house  policies  and  any  other 
special  subject  a  knowledge  of  which  may  have  been 
found  essential  in  the  selling  of  the  product.  The 
coaching  in  the  field  may  also  have  two  subdivisions; 
the  making  of  presentations  to  actual  prospects  by  the 
recruit,  and  a  criticism  of  his  methods  by  the  coach; 
and  the  making  of  presentations  by  the  coach,  while 
the  new  salesman  carefully  observes  his  methods. 

Little  need  be  said  here  of  training  new  men  in  the 
principles  of  salesmanship.     It  is  enough  to  say  that 


250  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

a  course  of  instruction  can  be  planned  from  the  ma- 
terial contained  in  this  book.  But  the  methods  of 
handling  the  other  parts  of  the  house  training  and  of 
conducting  the  field  instruction,  we  shall  look  into  in 
some  detail. 

4.  House  training;  preparing  recruits  for  class 
work. — The  best  practice  in  connection  with  the  house 
instruction,  is  to  convene  training  classes  at  those 
times  of  the  year  when  the  prospect  of  a  busy  season 
or  the  planning  of  an  extensive  campaign  renders  the 
training  of  new  men  particularly  important.  It  is 
obviously  unwise  to  complete  the  training  of  the  new 
men  during  a  period  when  business  is  dull  or  selling  is 
difficult.  For  example,  the  month  of  July  is  a  low- 
peak  month  in  specialty  selling,  and  to  place  new 
salesmen  in  their  territories  at  this  time  might  dis- 
courage good  men  at  the  outset.  Experience  has 
proved  that  the  best  results  will  be  obtained  by  bring- 
ing the  new  men  into  the  annual  sales  convention  and 
convening  the  training  class  immediately  afterward. 
The  enthusiasm  and  knowledge  gained  at  the  conven- 
tion will  thus  supplement  that  secured  in  the  training 
class.  New  men  instructed  in  this  manner  get  started 
much  more  quickly  and  do  a  larger  volume  of  business 
than  men  trained  at  other  periods  of  the  year. 

Usually  the  men  who  are  to  be  trained  are  picked 
out  at  least  a  month  prior  to  the  date  set  for  the  c?Dn- 
vening  of  the  class.  From  the  time  they  are  chosen, 
the  new  men  should  get  letters  from  the  house  daily 
just  as  the  old  men  do,  and  they  should  also  receive 


TRAINING  SALESMEN  251 

the  house  organ  regularly.  The  instructor  will  save 
a  great  deal  of  valuable  time  by  utilizing  this  month 
for  prehminary  instruction.  Each  day  a  piece  of 
the  house  literature  should  be  sent,  accompanied  by 
a  warm,  friendly  letter  pointing  out  the  strong  selling 
points  contained  in  the  printed  material.  The  new 
men  should  be  told  that  they  will  be  quizzed  on  each 
of  these  pieces  of  literature  during  the  period  of  house 
training.  If  a  standard  presentation  is  to  be  commit- 
ted to  memory,  this  is  a  good  time  to  send  it  out. 

At  this  time  also,  the  equipment  which  the  salesman 
will  carry  with  him  into  the  field  should  be  sent,  either 
all  at  once  or  piece  by  piece.  Its  use  will  already 
have  been  explained  in  the  standard  presentation. 
One  concern  in  order  to  give  this  procedure  some  in- 
terest, first  sends  the  leather  bag  in  which  the  equip- 
ment is  to  be  carried  and  then  gradually  fills  the  bag. 
Letters  accompanying  the  various  pieces  emphasize 
this  idea  of  "filling  the  bag."  The  prospective  sales- 
man should  have  his  complete  equipment  at  least  two 
weeks  before  he  comes  into  the  class,  in  order  that  he 
may  practise  his  delivery  of  the  standard  presentation 
with  the  equipment,  endeavoring  to  produce  and  han- 
dle each  piece  at  the  proper  time  and  in  the  proper 
manner. 

If  the  salesman  is  to  be  required  to  give  this  talk 
verbatim  before  going  into  the  field,  it  will  be  well 
to  insure  an  early  start  on  it  by  making  his  ability  to 
deliver  it  satisfactorily  a  prerequisite  to  entrance  into 
the  sales  training  class.     He  should  be  required  to 


252  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

call  upon  the  instructor  several  days  before  the  class 
opens  in  order  that  he  may  be  examined  on  this  sub- 
ject. If  this  is  not  done,  the  prospective  salesman 
will  delay  committing  his  talk  to  memory.  Then  one 
of  three  things  will  happen:  his  entrance  upon  field 
work  will  be  delayed  or  he  will  go  to  his  territory  only 
half  prepared,  or  the  nerves  of  both  student  and  in- 
structor will  be  worn  to  a  frazzle  by  forced  study. 

The  National  Cash  Register  Company,  instead  of 
selecting  untried  men  for  their  training  classes,  invite 
only  those  to  come  to  Dayton  at  the  expense  of  the 
Company  to  attend  the  sales  school,  who  have  already 
made  good  selling  cash  registers  under  the  direction 
of  a  district  manager  or  a  sales  agent  for  a  period 
of  six  months  Where  this  method  is  followed,  a 
great  deal  of  the  preliminary  work  described  here  will 
be  unnecessary.  This  is  true  also  of  cases  where  new 
members  for  the  sales  force  are  secured  from  within 
the  organization. 

5.  Opening  the  traiimig  class. — After  the  instruc- 
tor has  given  a  brief  talk,  outlining  the  ground  to  be 
covered  by  the  course,  there  should  be  a  speech  of  wel- 
come by  the  sales  manager  and  a  talk  on  opportunity 
and  house  ideals  by  the  biggest  company  executive 
available.  During  the  training  course,  the  men  in 
charge  of  the  various  departments  should  address  the 
class.  There  should  be  a  talk  by  the  head  of  the  serv- 
ice department,  in  which  the  latter  should  promise  to 
cooperate  with  the  men  in  the  building  of  sales.  The 
credit  man  should  discuss  credit  risks  and  point  out 


TRAINING  SALESMEN  25S 

ways  in  which  the  salesman  can  cooperate  with  him. 
The  advertising  manager  should  explain  how  the 
salesman  may  take  the  utmost  advantage  of  the 
house's  publicit}^  It  will  be  found  advisable  to  make 
arrangements  for  executive  officers  and  department 
heads  to  have  lunch  with  the  members  of  the  class,  for 
during  such  informal  social  intercourse  discussions 
arise,  friendships  are  formed  and  the  new  men  become 
well  acquainted  with  those  in  the  organization  who  are 
to  handle  their  business.  The  spirit  of  loyalty  which 
is  engendered  in  the  new  men  in  this  way,  and  the 
knowledge  of  the  house  spirit  and  house  ideals  that  he 
gains,  are  among  the  most  valuable  acquisitions  that 
he  can  carry  into  the  field  with  him. 

6.  Special  instruction  in  different  lines. — There  will 
be  some  special  subjects  related  to  the  product,  in 
which  the  new  salesman  will  need  instruction.  The 
nature  of  this  instruction  will  depend  entirely  on  what 
the  product  is.  For  example,  men  selling  loose-leaf 
devices  will  be  instructed  in  accounting  principles  and 
will  be  given  at  least  a  talking  knowledge  of  loose- 
leaf  accounting  systems.  The  National  Cash  Regis- 
ter Company  men  are  shown  how  to  investigate  and 
analyze  different  types  of  business  with  the  idea  of 
introducing  cash-register  systems.  The  training  sys- 
tem of  the  Willys-Overland  Company  provides  for 
the  student's  spending  half  of  each  day  during  the 
month's  training,  in  the  shop  or  laboratory,  studying 
construction,  engine  details  and  tensile  and  torsional 
strength  of  axles  and  other  steel  parts.     The  necessity 

VI-18  ^  ^ 


254  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

for  a  knowledge  of  such  related  subjects  should  not 
be  overlooked  in  the  training  course. 

7.  Studying  selling  methods. — The  new  salesman 
should  be  taught  the  best  selling  plans  and  selling  talks 
worked  out  by  the  men  in  the  field.  The  usual  objec- 
tions of  the  prospects  should  be  brought  up  and  the 
best  answers  to  them  given.  The  appeals  that  have 
proved  most  successful  with  special  classes  of  pros- 
pects should  be  clearly  set  forth.  If  these  matters 
have  been  put  into  a  selling  manual,  as  is  generally 
the  case,  the  manual  may  be  used  as  a  text-book  for 
this  portion  of  the  course. 

During  the  week  each  member  of  the  class  should 
be  required  to  make  at  least  two  presentations  of  his 
proposition  to  one  of  the  other  class  members.  When 
a  presentation  is  finished,  the  man  who  has  made  it 
should  be  given  the  first  opportunity  to  criticize. 
Then  the  instructor  in  charge  of  the  class  should  make 
his  criticisms.  After  that  open  discussion  might  be 
in  order. 

8.  Talks  from  the  star  salesmen. — One  or  two  of 
the  best  salesmen — men  who  have  been  responsible  for 
working  out  some  of  the  sales  methods,  and  who  are 
big  producers — should  address  the  men.  Care  should 
be  taken  that  the  men  selected  for  this  purpose  should 
be  able  to  impart  information  to  others,  and  be  capable 
of  making  a  strong,  enthusiastic  presentation  of  their 
subject.  Such  men  in  telling  the  new  salesmen  how 
to  sell  will  carry  far  more  weight  than  the  instructor 
or  even  the  sales  manager. 


TRAINING  SALESMEN  255 

9.  Length  of  course  and  size  of  class. — The  length 
of  the  course  of  house  training  differs  widely  with 
different  companies;  a  week  is  about  the  average 
length.  When  highly  technical  knowledge  must  be 
imparted,  the  period  will  be  much  longer.  This  is 
true  even  of  the  recruit  picked  from  inside  the  or- 
ganization, if  his  duties  have  not  made  him  familiar 
with  the  manufacturing  processes.  The  general  tend- 
ency is  to  allow  whatever  time  may  be  necessary  to 
equip  the  men  thoroly  before  they  go  to  their  terri- 
tories. 

On  the  last  day  of  the  house  training  the  sales  man- 
ager should  call  each  of  the  members  into  his  office 
for  individual  consultation.  After  that  the  class  may 
be  closed  formally  by  an  address  from  the  sales  man- 
ager or  some  other  executive.  When  possible,  a 
pleasant  touch  is  added  by  a  meeting  of  the  entire  in- 
side organization  in  honor  of  the  new  men.  During 
the  meeting  each  of  the  new  men  may  be  called  upon 
to  talk,  while  members  of  the  office  organization  wish 
them  god-speed  and  assure  them  of  hearty  cooper- 
ation. 

Generally  speaking,  the  information  which  a  sales- 
man gets  by  an  intensive  training  at  the  home  offices 
of  the  company  could  be  given  to  him  at  one  of  tlie 
company's  branch  offices;  or,  thru  a  manual  prepared 
for  the  purpose,  right  in  his  own  home  or  territory 
without  the  necessity  of  his  visiting  either  the  home 
offices  or  a  branch.  The  expense  of  either  of  these 
plans  would,  of  course,  as  a  general  rule  be  consid- 
erably smaller.     It  is  doubtful,  however,  that  the  in- 


256  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

spiration  received  by  a  new  salesman  thru  his  training 
right  at  the  home  offices  of  the  company  could  exactly 
be  duplicated  in  anj^  other  way.  In  cases  where  it 
is  deemed  wise  to  train  salesmen  either  at  branch  offices 
or  in  their  own  homes  or  territories,  the  training  out- 
lined here  should  be  approximated  as  closely  as  pos- 
sible, and  considerable  care  should  be  taken  to  see  that 
as  little  as  possible  of  the  inspirational  nature  of  the 
training  be  lost. 

10.  Field  training. — Organizations  that  have  local 
managers  in  various  territories  often  depend  upon 
these  managers  to  train  the  new  salesmen  in  their  work 
in  the  field.  This  method  works  well  since  the  local 
branch  managers  are  generally  good  salesmen,  good 
teachers  and  men  who  insist  that  the  rules  of  the 
house  be  strictly  obsei'ved  by  the  new  salesman. 

11.  Essential  qualifications  of  the  coach. — The 
coach  should  be  an  expert  salesman  who  can  be  de- 
pended upon  to  secure  a  satisfactory  volume  of  busi- 
ness while  he  is  demonstrating  salesmanship.  He 
should  be  able  to  make  sales  with  the  new  man  sit- 
ting behind  him  during  the  interviews.  It  is  also 
necessary  that  he  work  according'  to  the  methods 
taught  by  the  house.  The  man  who  sells  chiefly  by 
reason  of  a  forceful  personality  can,  as  a  coach,  do  the 
new  man  little  good.  The  man  who  has  worked  out 
methods  of  his  own  will  only  confuse  the  new  sales- 
man. The  coach  should  be  a  hard  worker,  otherwise 
the  opportunity  to  inculcate  habits  of  hard  work  at 
the  outset  will  be  lost. 


TRAINING  SALESMEN  257 

12.  Principles  of  coaching. — The  new  man  is 
coached  by  being  brought  right  into  the  prospect's 
place  of  business  where  he  can  hear  the  coach  make  an 
actual  presentation.  The  coach,  after  having  greeted 
the  prospect  and  introduced  himself,  should  introduce 
the  beginner.  He  will  have  previously  given  the  be- 
ginner instructions  to  get  into  the  background  imme- 
diately after  the  introduction,  jDreferably  somewhere 
behind  the  prospect  where  he  will  not  be  seen  during 
the  interview.  The  coach  then  proceeds  just  as  if  the 
beginner  were  not  with  him.  He  must  become  adept 
at  forgetting  that  the  third  man  is  present. 

A  fundamental  principle  of  coaching  requires  that 
the  coach  stay  with  the  new  man  until  he  has  pro- 
duced satisfactory  business  and  made  some  headway 
in  opening  the  territory.  For  this  reason,  it  is  not 
well  to  set  a  definite  time  limit  on  the  coaching  period. 
The  coach's  task  is  not,  however,  merely  to  make  sales 
in  the  presence  of  the  new  man.  It  is  just  as  im- 
portant for  him  to  allow  the  new  man  to  make 
presentations  and  endeavor  to  close  business.  After 
each  of  these  presentations,  the  coach  should  criticize 
the  beginner's  methods  and  make  suggestions  for  their 
improvement.  The  beginner  sliould,  if  possible,  have 
taken  some  business  himself  before  the  coach  leaves 
him. 

Usually  the  work  of  the  coach  either  makes  the 
new  man  enthusiastic  and  develops  him  into  a  pro- 
ducer, or  it  discourages  him  and  leaves  him  a  non-pro- 
ducer.    The  coach  should  guard  against  tlie  latter 


258  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

possibility,  and  should  endeavor  to  impress  upon  the 
new  man  the  importance  of  loyalty  and  hard  work,  as 
well  as  the  necessity  of  devoting  thought  and  study 
especially  to  the  commodity. 

13.  Use  of  a  special  coach. — Salesmen  who  orig- 
inally worked  out  the  selling  methods  for  the  product 
are  in  many  instances  used  to  train  the  new  men. 
Frequently,  however,  these  men  may  not  be  suitable 
for  this  work.  Some  houses,  on  the  other  hand,  have 
men  who  do  nothing  but  coach.  When  they  are  not 
breaking  in  new  men  they  help  any  of  the  older  sales- 
men who  may  be  running  a  little  low  in  volume  of 
sales.  If  such  a  coach  can  be  kept  busy,  this  is  a 
good  method.  The  disadvantage  of  the  plan  is  that 
it  w^ill  be  impossible  for  one  or  even  two  or  three  men 
to  coach  all  the  members  of  a  class  of  ten  or  twelve 
men  within  a  reasonable  time. 

14.  Use  of  the  salesman  in  the  territory  as  coach. — 
A  method  more  generally  followed  is  to  use  the  best 
salesmen  as  coaches.  The  new  man  stays  with  the 
older  salesman  for  a  week  and  the  latter  receives  extra 
compensation  for  giving  this  instruction.  For  exam- 
ple, in  high-class  specialty  lines,  the  older  salesman  is 
paid  a  fixed  smn  for  a  week's  coaching,  in  addition  to 
his  commission  for  any  sales  that  he  makes  while  he  is 
demonstrating.  AVhile  this  method  has  worked  satis- 
factorily, it  has  some  disadvantages.  The  salesman 
to  whom  the  new  man  is  sent  may  not  work  hard,  regu- 
larly, or  systematically,  and  if  this  is  the  case,  he  will 
set  a  bad  example.     He  may  be  careless  about  carry- 


TRAINING  SALESMEN  259 

ing  out  the  instructions  of  the  house.  He  may  sell  on 
personality  or  by  different  methods  from  those  taught 
the  new  man.  He  may  not  be  able  to  sell  with  a  third 
man  present  or  he  may  dislike  having  to  do  so.  Fur- 
thermore, the  average  salesman  is  unable  to  sit  calmly 
by  while  a  cub  practises  on  a  good  prospect. 

15.  Group  methods  of  field  training. — Leadership 
of  the  right  kind  renders  it  possible  to  coach  the  class 
in  a  body.  Under  this  method  a  town,  or  a  closely- 
knit  territory,  containing  a  sufficient  number  of  pros- 
pects to  keep  a  dozen  men  busy  for  a  week,  is  selected. 
The  assistant  sales  manager  or  possibly  the  sales  man- 
ager himself  takes  charge  of  the  class  and  generally 
calls  at  least  one  other  good  salesman  from  the  field 
to  assist  him  in  the  coaching  work. 

Arrangements  should  be  made  to  have  the  party 
-reach  the  territory  Saturday  evening  or  Sunday  morn- 
ing, for  thus  the  point  can  be  emphasized  that  each 
individual  salesman  should  always  plan  to  reach  a 
town  early  enough  to  be  able  to  do  the  necessaiy  pre- 
liminary organization  work  without  using  for  the  pur- 
pose any  of  the  time  that  he  should  spend  seeing  pros- 
pects. The  territory  is  organized  just  as  the  indi- 
vidual salesman  will  be  expected  to  organize  his  ter- 
ritory when  he  reaches  it.  Names  of  prospects  are 
secured  from  the  general  directoiy,  the  telephone  di- 
rectory and  other  sources,  and  put  on  the  prospect 
cards. 

In  some  cases  the  coach  will  secure  a  file  of  local 
newspapers  for  at  least  two  weeks  past  and  instruct 


260  SALES  MANAGEJNIENT 

his  charges  to  read  several  of  them  so  as  to  become 
accjuainted  with  the  general  atmosphere  of  the  town 
and  secure  a  knowledge  of  its  activities  and  its  people. 
Sometimes  a  reading  of  the  newspapers  will  suggest 
definite  leads,  or  will  give  additional  information  on 
those  secured  from  other  sources. 

16.  Lajiing  out  the  field. — A  map  of  the  town 
should  be  cut  up  according  to  districts,  and  prospects 
in  each  district  noted.  Then  each  salesman  should  be 
assigned  a  district.  A  map  of  his  district  should  be 
given  to  each  man  so  that  he  will  lose  no  time  in  get- 
ting acquainted  with  the  geography  of  the  town,  or 
travel  long  distances  between  prospects.  If  the  party 
arrives  Saturday  night  or  Sunday  morning,  all  of 
this  preliminary  organization  work  can  be  finished  in 
time  to  allow  the  party  to  go  out  Sunday  afternoon 
in  several  different  groups  to  get  a  knowledge  of  the 
territory  by  actual  observation. 

The  whole  party  will  thus  be  ready  to  start  work 
without  delay  the  first  thing  INIonday  morning.  The 
leader  and  the  salesman  who  is  assisting  him  will  each 
take  one  of  the  new  men  for  the  day.  Each  day  fol- 
lowing they  will  take  different  men.  Every  day  the 
men  who  are  not  working  with  the  assistant  sales 
manager  or  the  other  coach,  will  work  by  themselves. 

17.  Week's  program. — The  members  of  the  party 
should  be  instructed  to  make  out  their  daily  re- 
ports at  the  close  of  each  day,  just  as  soon  as  they 
i-eturn  to  headquarters.  Then,  while  they  are  still 
warmed  up,  they  should  plan  their  work  for  the  fol- 


TRAINING  SALESMEN  261 

lowing  day.  A  half-serious  rule,  that  no  man  be  al- 
lowed to  come  to  the  dinner  table  until  he  has  per- 
formed this  work,  will  be  found  effective.  The  idea  is 
to  insist  from  the  start  on  businesslike  habits  that 
make  for  success.  It  is  an  excellent  practice  to  set  a 
standard  for  a  day's  work  in  order  that  the  new  sales- 
man may  form  the  habit  of  hard,  consistent  work  for 
six  days  a  week.  After  dinner  an  informal  discussion 
of  the  day's  experiences  should  be  held. 

During  the  week,  each  new  man,  besides  having  had 
some  experience  of  his  own,  will  have  had  an  oppor- 
tunity to  see  business  taken  by  one  or  the  other  of 
the  coaches.  At  the  close  of  the  week  they  will  go 
to  their  respective  territories  fairly  well  prepared. 
Probably  the  biggest  thing  in  this  method  of  training 
is  the  spirit  which  it  creates.  Under  the  leadership 
of  a  man  who  can  fraternize  with  the  members  of  the 
class,  the  week  will  be  one  not  only  of  hard  work,  but 
of  good  fellowship  and  harmony.  At  its  close  there 
should  be  pleasant  memories  on  the  part  of  all,  of  the 
week  which  they  have  spent  together.  JMembers  of 
the  class  are  likely  to  promise  to  write  to  one  an- 
other. Sometimes  a  small  organization  of  the  train- 
ing class  may  be  formed,  with  the  spirit  of  making  a 
better  record  than  previous  classes;  thus  a  friendly 
rivalry  is  engendered  which  is  helpful  alike  to  the 
salesmen  and  to  the  organization.  Above  all,  after 
such  preparation,  a  group  of  men  will  go  to  their  work 
thoroly  trained  in  businesslike  habits  and  in  the  care- 
ful observance  of  the  house  rules. 


262  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

In  a  great  many  lines,  this  group  method  of  coach- 
ing is  not  practicable,  because  prospects  are  neces- 
sarily few  and  far  between.  In  the  case  of  a  specialty 
organization  where  individual  sales  are  difficult,  there 
is  grave  danger  that  the  coaches  themselves  will  some- 
times fail  to  close  a  sale.  If  they  do  the  whole  class 
will  be  affected  disadvantageously.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  the  new  men  are  not  grouped  the  failure  of 
one  coach  will  affect  a  single  man  only.  The  group 
method  has  the  advantage  of  being  considerably 
cheaper  for  the  firm  than  individual  coaching. 

18.  Cost  versus  results. — The  cost  of  putting  each 
salesman  into  the  field  with  the  training  that  has  been 
described  is  much  higher  than  the  cost  of  the  older 
method  of  sending  the  salesman  out  the  same  day  that 
he  was  engaged,  but  results  warrant  the  outlay.  Un- 
der the  old  methods  only  a  small  fraction  of  the  men 
made  good  and  brought  a  profit  to  the  house.  Under 
the  new  method,  the  carefully  selected  man  who  fails 
to  become  a  producer  is  an  exception.  The  money 
spent  on  equipping  and  starting  out  the  nine  out  of 
ten  men  who  failed  under  the  old  method  was  a  dead 
expense.  The  money  spent  in  training  men  as  they 
are  trained  today  is  an  investment — and  an  invest- 
ment which  pays  large  dividends. 

REVIEW 

These  training  methods  cost  a  lot  of  money.  How  would  you 
justify  the  large  outlay  per  man? 

Discuss  sales  training  and  the  coacher.  How  would  yt)u  plan 
to  give  the  salesmen  of  your  concern  their  training? 


CHAPTER  IV 

SELLING  METHODS  AND  THE  SELLING 
EQUIPMENT 

1.  Constant  necessity  for  new  methods. — Just  as 
the  new  men  should  continue  to  study  after  they  have 
been  graduated  from  the  training  class,  so  the  sales 
manager  himself  should  continue  to  work  up  new  sell- 
ing talks  and  new  selling  methods  after  the  first  field 
experiments  have  produced  methods  that  sell  the 
goods.  Constant  study  is  necessary,  not  only  because 
improved  methods  will  result  in  increased  sales,  but 
because  methods  used  over  and  over  again  become  stale 
to  the  average  salesman  and  he  loses  his  effectiveness 
in  using  them.  New  methods,  even  tho  they  are  no 
better  than  those  discarded,  will  usually  result  in  in- 
creased business  for  the  salesman.  Later  he  may  go 
back  to  the  discarded  methods  and  because  they  again 
seem  fresh  to  him,  use  them  with  the  old-time  effective- 
ness. 

2.  Source  of  new  selling  suggestions. — There  is 
only  one  source  from  which  new  selling  talks  can  be 
secured — the  men  in  the  field.  That  does  not  mean 
that  the  sales  manager  or  his  assistants  may  not  go 
into  the  field,  test  certain  theories  and  finding  them 
satisfactory,  pass  them  on  to  the  organization  as  the 
result  of  experience.     If  the  ideas  of  the  house  are 

263 


264  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

not  tested  in  this  manner,  they  should  be  explained 
to  a  few  of  the  best  salesmen  with  the  request  that  they 
be  tried  out  in  field  work.  For  example,  the  salesmen 
in  a  certain  organization,  which  had  just  inaugurated 
its  first  advertising  campaign,  complained  that  the 
prospects  who  made  inquiry  of  the  firm  in  response  to 
the  advertising  learned  in  that  way  all  about  the  prop- 
osition, and  that  the  salesmen  consequently  had  little 
to  talk  about.  The  sales  manager's  answer  to  that 
argument  was  that  this  knowledge  on  the  part  of  the 
prospect  was  an  advantage  and,  by  relieving  the  sales- 
man of  the  necessity  of  going  into  details,  gave  him  an 
opportunity  to  talk  in  terms  of  advantages  and  results. 
What  was  needed  in  such  a  case,  the  manager  de- 
cided, was  a  method  of  presentation  entirely  different 
from  that  which  was  necessary  when  a  prospect  had 
no  previous  knowledge  of  the  product.  He  communi- 
cated with  several  of  the  best  men  in  the  field  and  sent 
them  a  tentativ^e  presentation,  with  the  request  that 
they  try  it.  When  this  procedure  was  found  to  work 
well,  the  new  method  was  given  to  all  the  men  as  the 
result  of  the  experience  of  the  best  salesmen. 

In  every  organization,  there  are  some  salesmen  who 
are  appreciably  stronger  with  some  one  class  of  pros- 
pects than  they  are  with  any  other.  The  sales  man- 
ager should  ascertain  why  this  is  the  case,  discover  the 
methods  that  those  salesmen  use  and  pass  them  on  for 
the  benefit -of  the  other  men  in  the  organization.  One 
salesman  presenting  mechanical  devices  may  have  par- 
ticularly natural  and  effective  methods  of  introducing 


SELLING  METHODS  265 

certain  points  and  impressing  the  prospect  with  their 
importance.  Another  may  have  devised  subtle  meth- 
ods for  secm-ing  the  prospect's  participation  in  the 
sale.  A  salesman  for  an  advertised  commodity  may 
have  worked  out  methods  of  showing  what  advertising 
is  being  done  or  what  is  to  be  done,  or  otherwise  dem- 
onstrating the  value  of  advertising  campaigns  to  se- 
cure an  order.  The  salesman  selling  to  dealers  may 
be  particularly  strong  in  showing  the  dealer  that  the 
goods  will  move,  or  he  may  have  definite  plans  to  sug- 
gest for  moving  them,  such  for  example,  as  the  dem- 
onstration plan  for  moving  knife  sharpeners,  which 
has  been  described  in  a  preceding  chapter.  One 
member  of  the  organization  may  have  a  new  way  of 
handling  equipment,  and  another,  new  selling  points 
or  new  methods  of  presenting  old  ones.  Another  may 
work  up  strong  reserve  talks  to  be  used  where  the  sale 
is  not  closed  by  the  main  presentation.  Still  another 
may  have  effective  ways  of  anticipating  and  remov- 
ing the  usual  objections  that  a  prospect  presents. 
Again,  a  salesman  may  have  an  entirely  new  presen- 
tation to  be  used  where  it  is  necessary  to  call  a  second 
time  on  a  prospect. 

The  nature  of  the  information  that  the  sales  man- 
ager will  wish  to  secure  from  the  members  of  his  or- 
ganization will  be  dictated  by  the  particular  line  of 
business.  It  is  one  of  his  most  important  duties  to 
see  that  the  selling  talks  and  methods  that  have  proved 
successful  are  put  into  use  for  the  benefit  of  the  sales- 
man and  of  the  business. 


266  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

3.  Methods  of  securing  suggestions. — The  sales 
manager  can  secure  much  information  in  informal 
talks  with  his  men.  He  can  obtain  some  from  the 
salesmen's  daily  letters.  A  salesman  who  has  secured 
a  good  order  should  be  encouraged  to  explain  his  ex- 
perience in  detail.  He  may  do  this  by  writing  a  for- 
mal article  for  publication  in  the  house  organ,  or  he 
may  write  a  letter  to  the  sales  manager,  who  can  then 
edit  it  for  the  house  organ.  The  latter  is  probably  the 
better  method. 

Stenographic  notes  should  be  taken  of  every  talk 
that  any  salesman  makes  before  a  training  class  or  at 
a  convention.  If  one  of  the  best  salesmen  is  at  the 
home  office  temporarily,  it  may  be  well  to  have  the  men 
from  nearby  territories  run  in  for  an  hour's  talk  with 
him.  Small,  informal  meetings  such  as  these  have 
been  found  most  inspiring  and  helpful.  If  the  or- 
ganization is  working  with  the  proper  spirit,  two 
members  cannot  get  together  without  exchanging 
ideas  and  methods  that  will  be  valuable  to  both. 
AVhenever  possible,  this  getting  together  should  be 
encouraged ;  and  when  salesmen  are  widely  separated, 
correspondence  between  them  should  be  promoted. 

This  securing  of  selling  suggestions  is  one  of  those 
phases  of  sales-department  work  which  show  that 
loyalty  is  more  than  a  name.  The  salesman  who  is 
disloyal,  or  who  is  a  member  of  an  organization  that 
lacks  the  right  spirit,  will  hug  to  himself  his  methods 
of  getting  business  with  the  result  that  there  can  be 
no  profit  to  other  salesmen  from  his  experience.     The 


SELLING  METHODS  267 

loyal  member  of  an  enthusiastic  organization,  on  the 
other  hand,  will  pass  suggestions  along  without  re- 
serve for  the  benefit  of  his  house,  his  sales  manager 
and  his  brother  salesmen. 

4.  Standard  selling  talk. — The  selling  points  and 
the  selling  methods  may  or  may  not  be  put  into  the 
shape  of  a  standard  presentation.  Such  a  presen- 
tation includes  a  well-considered  talk  and  method  of 
handling  equipment,  and  is  generally  a  composite  of 
the  best  selling  practice.  The  presentation  should 
include  a  speech  to  be  learned  verbatim,  and  instruc- 
tions for  the  handling  of  the  equipment  during  the 
talk.  Sales  managers  are  divided  as  to  the  useful- 
ness of  a  set  speech  in  presenting  a  proposition.  The 
National  Cash  Register  Company  which  originated 
the  standard  presentation,  at  one  time  insisted  upon 
their  salesmen's  learning  the  talk  verbatim,  but  have 
now  abandoned  this  method.  They  now  instruct  their 
salesmen  to  have  a  thoro  knowledge  of  the  product  and 
of  all  its  selling  points,  but  never  to  make  up  their 
minds  before  they  are  face  to  face  with  the  prospect, 
exactly  what  they  intend  to  say  to  him.  They  should 
rather  let  circumstances  govern  their  opening  remarks 
and  selling  talk.  This  does  not  mean,  of  course,  that 
the  National  Cash  Register  Company  has  discon- 
tinued working  out  the  best  way  to  present  each  sell- 
ing point  of  their  machine,  or  to  anticipate  objec- 
tions which  may  be  raised.  The  talk  which  their 
salesmen  use  today  is  a  combination  of  standardized 
selling  points. 


268  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

Nothing  will  destroy  a  man's  initiative  more 
quickly  than  sj)eaking  a  set  piece  over  and  over  every 
day,  and  approaching  every  prospect  in  exactly  the 
same  manner.  Furthermore,  it  is  difficult  for  most 
men  to  make  a  talk  which  they  have  learned  by  heart, 
sound  like  their  own,  and  a  standard  talk  is  useless  if 
the  prospect  discovers  that  it  is  something  learned  by 
rote.  It  is  true  also  that  merely  giving  a  standard 
talk  will  secure  but  few  orders.  Even  where  it  is 
used,  additions  must  be  made  to  tie  up  the  proposition 
with  the  prospect's  interests;  and  certain  parts  may 
have  to  be  omitted.  Both  sales  manager  and  sales- 
men should  keep  in  mind  that  the  men  who  have  been 
principally  responsible  for  the  working  out  of  the 
standard  presentation  are  big  producers,  who  would 
not  allow  themselves  nor  expect  others  to  fall  into  the 
rut  of  saying  exactly  the  same  thing  over  and  over 
again. 

5.  FlCiTib^e  use  of  the  standard  presentation. — It 
is  a  good  general  rule  that  a  standard  presentation 
should  be  worked  out,  and  standard  reserve  talks  and 
answers  to  objections  should  be  prepared.  The 
printed  talk  given  to  the  salesmen  should  have  ample 
foot-notes.  Sometimes  these  will  be  more  voluminous 
than  the  presentation  itself,  and  possibly  more  im- 
portant. A  thoro  explanation  in  these  foot-notes  of 
why  certain  things  are  said  and  done  at  certain  steps 
of  the  presentation  will  do  much  to  persuade  the  sales- 
man of  the  usefulness  of  the  standard  presentation 
and,  more  important  still,  may  suggest  to  him  other 


SELLING  METHODS  269 

methods  of  accomplishing  the  same  object  which  may 
be  more  effective  or  better  suited  to  him  personally. 

There  was  a  time  not  very  long  ago  when  a  great 
many  houses  insisted  that  all  their  salesmen,  old  and 
new  alike,  should  learn  a  standard  presentation  and 
give  it  verbatim.  It  is  generally  recognized  today 
that  there  can  be  no  advantage  in  insisting  upon  this 
in  the  case  of  an  experienced  salesman.  Whether  or 
not  the  new  men  should  be  required  to  learn  the  pres- 
entation word  for  word,  will  depend  upon  the  com- 
plexity of  the  product  sold.  When  the  proposition  is 
simple  it  may  be  necessary  merely  for  the  salesman  to 
get  an  idea  of  the  general  outline  and  sequence  of 
ideas  in  tlie  selling  talk,  and  present  them  in  his  own 
words.  When,  on  the  other  hand,  the  proposition 
necessitates  an  elaborate  explanation  or  requires  the 
salesman  to  educate  his  prospect  in  the  principles  of 
the  proposition,  it  has  been  found  that  the  success  of 
new  men  at  the  outset  is  generally  in  proportion  to  the 
accuracy  of  their  knowledge  of  the  standard  presenta- 
tion and  their  ability  to  use  it  effectively. 

The  new  salesman  should  study  the  standard  pres- 
entation thoroly  and  should  be  able  to  give  it  word 
for  word,  but  it  is  not  expected  that  he  should  use  it 
always.  The  standard  form  is  a  clear-cut  method  of 
presentation  which  the  salesman  should  follow  until  he 
develops  methods  of  his  own.  When  that  step  is 
reached,  it  will  furnish  him  with  a  track  to  run  upon 
in  making  his  own  talk,  and  will  give  him  something 
to  say  on  the  days  which  come  to  most  salesmen,  when 

VI— 19 


270  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

he  cannot  be  original.  In  short,  the  new  salesmen 
should  learn  the  standard  presentation  thoroly — and 
then  gradually  forget  it. 

6.  Equipment. — The  term,  equipment,  includes 
everything  that  the  salesman  carries  to  aid  him  in 
making  the  sale,  even  down  to  the  personal  cards  with 
which  he  is  furnished  by  the  house.  It  includes  aids 
to  selling,  ranging  all  the  way  from  the  cold,  figure- 
strewn  prospectus  of  the  bond  salesman  to  the  fif- 
teen or  twenty  trunks  of  the  general  dry  goods  man. 
Much  as  the  salesman's  equipment  may  vary  in  differ- 
ent lines,  there  are  certain  definite  principles  that  are 
applicable  in  any  case — in  regard  to  both  convenience 
of  form  and  force  of  selling  appeal. 

Special  care  should  be  taken  not  to  overload  the 
salesman.  When  he  carries  the  equipment,  it  should 
be  easily  portable  and  not  so  heavy  as  to  tire  him  and 
sap  his  energy  early  in  the  day.  This  carrying  about 
of  a  heavy  equipment  has  a  great  deal  more  to  do  with 
keeping  down  a  man's  volume  of  sales  than  most  sales 
managers  realize.  If  the  equipment  consists  of  sam- 
ples carried  in  trunks,  care  should  be  taken  lest  the 
individual  pieces  exceed  the  weight  that  may  be  car- 
ried as  baggage  over  the  railroads.  Whether  or  not 
there  will  be  facilities  for  handling  a  large  trunk  line 
in  the  town  to  be  visited  has  to  be  considered.  For 
example,  a  Cleveland  blanket  manufacturing  concern 
which  usually  equips  its  salesmen  with  several  large 
trunks  has  recently  started  a  salesman  in  an  automo- 
bile making  small  towns  off  the  railroad.     It  has  been 


SELLING  METHODS  271 

necessary  to  cut  down  his  equipment  to  one  trunk  and 
to  show  the  balance  of  the  hne  by  catalog  and  samples 
of  material. 

Trimks  or  other  carriers  of  equipment  should  be  so 
constructed  that  the  contents  will  be  accessible. 
Wardrobe  trunks  are  largely  used  now  for  clothing 
lines.  Some  goods  will  lend  themselves  to  an  effec- 
tive display  when  fastened  in  the  trays  of  a  trunk. 
Shoes  and  millinery  may  be  shown  in  this  manner. 
The  sales  manager  makes  a  mistake  if  he  slights  these 
matters  on  the  ground  that  the  salesman  has  plenty  of 
time  in  the  evening  to  arrange  his  display  and  can  pack 
while  he  is  waiting  for  his  train.  The  salesman  has 
just  so  much  energy,  and  as  much  of  that  energy  as 
possible  should  be  devoted  to  the  actual  selling  of 
goods. 

7.  Equipment  with  an  imaginative  appeal. — The 
equipment  should  be  designed,  if  possible,  so  that  it 
will  appeal  to  the  imagination.  The  salesmen  who 
sell  apple-growing  lands  in  a  Montana  tract  are 
equipped  with  a  small  case  in  which  to  carry  samples 
of  the  apples.  A  story  is  told  of  a  grocery  salesman 
who  set  out  to  sell  a  large  consignment  of  prunes.  He 
secured  a  number  of  pictures  of  the  Santa  Clara  Val- 
ley in  California  where  the  prunes  were  grown.  He 
sent  for  pictures  of  the  Loire  Valley,  in  France,  where 
the  slips  of  his  prunes  were  grown.  He  carried  sam- 
ples both  of  imported  French  prunes  and  of  the  prunes 
he  was  selling.  As  part  of  his  demonstration  he 
would  cut  one  of  each  kind,  and  with  the  aid  of  a  mag- 


S72  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

nifying  glass  he  would  show  that  the  texture  of  his 
domestic  prune  was  just  as  fine  as  that  of  the  im- 
ported variety,  which  was  much  more  expensive. 

Facsimile  letters  of  indorsement  from  purchasers 
are  coming  more  and  more  into  favor  in  lines  where 
the  use  of  such  letters  is  practicable.  They  are  valu- 
able not  only  for  the  definite  statements  they  make 
in  regard  to  the  product,  but  also  because  they  indi- 
cate the  class  of  people  who  have  bought  it.  Great 
care  should  be  taken  to  have  the  reproduction  look 
as  much  as  possible  like  the  original. 

8.  Visualizing  the  product. — The  equipment  should 
be  such  that  the  prospect  may  visualize  the  product. 
Working  models  of  reduced  size  are  sometimes  used. 
A  certain  salesman  selling  dog  collars  takes  with  him 
a  thorobred  brindle  bulldog  on  which  to  display  his 
wares.  A  large  New  York  concern  manufactures  a 
folding  stereoscope  that  is  very  handy  for  salesmen, 
and  supplies  firms  using  them  with  appropriate  pic- 
tures which  can  be  shown  in  this  machine. 

In  a  great  many  cases  the  moving  picture  bids  fair 
to  supersede  these  other  means  of  visualizing  the  prod- 
uct. A  small  projecting  machine  which  the  sales- 
man can  carry  with  him  has  been  devised,  and  con- 
cerns have  been  organized  to  prepare  commercial  films 
for  the  use  of  salesmen.  This  method  is  used  to  show 
machinery  in  operation.  Explosives  are  being  dem- 
onstrated by  moving  pictures.  One  concern  that 
makes  automobile  tires,  is  showing  by  moving  pic- 
tures taken  at  its  plants,  the  process  of  manufacture 


SELLING  METHODS  27^ 

and  the  rigid  tests  to  which  the  tires  are  subjected. 
Styles  in  dress,  also,  are  being  demonstrated  in  this 
manner  on  living  models. 

9.  Making  the  equipment  compact,  uniform  and 
complete. — It  often  requires  considerable  ingenuity  to 
plan  and  arrange  the  equipment  so  that  it  can  be  easily 
carried  and  be  at  the  same  time  so  complete  that  the 
salesman  will  never  find  that  he  lacks  anji:hing  that 
would  aid  him  in  making  the  sale.  The  equipment 
should  always  be  so  arranged  as  to  present  a  uniform 
and  orderly  appearance.  A  number  of  houses  are 
today  working  out  this  problem  of  compactness  and 
completeness  most  effectively.  The  Heinz  Company, 
for  example,  having  found  that  it  was  impracticable 
for  every  salesman  to  carry  a  sample  of  each  of  the 
"57,"  and  that  the  few  they  could  carry  were  burden- 
some, have  equipped  their  men  with  catalogs  which 
picture  the  various  processes  of  manufacture  in  the 
Heinz  plant,  and  which  show  each  of  the  products 
full  size  in  color.  There  are,  in  addition,  pictures  of 
display  arrangements  for  each  line  of  goods.  The 
salesmen  for  a  New  York  linoleum  house,  who  for- 
merly carried  several  trunks  of  samples,  are  today 
equipped  only  with  an  ordinary  brief-case  which  con- 
tains several  samples  of  linoleum  that  show  the  qual- 
ity of  the  goods.  The  various  designs  in  which  the 
goods  may  be  had,  instead  of  being  shown  by  samples, 
are  pictured  in  full  colors  in  a  book  of  about  one  hun- 
dred pages. 

10.  Keeping  the  equipment  fresh. — The  equipment 


274.  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

should  always  be  as  attractive  as  possible.  The  mo- 
rocco wallet  of  the  bond  salesman  lends  dignity  to  his 
proposition.  Good  substantial  trunks  give  the  im- 
pression that  the  firm  is  efficient  and  businesslike  in 
handling  its  goods.  The  heterogeneous  mass  of  cata- 
logs carried  by  the  salesmen  of  many  wholesale  houses 
can  be  made  attractive  by  uniform  leather  covers. 
Possibly  the  whole  lot  might  be  put  into  one  neat 
leather  case. 

The  sales  manager  should  always  insist  that  the 
salesman  keep  his  equipment  in  the  pink  of  condition. 
It  gets  worn  and  dog-eared  so  gradually  that  the  sales- 
man may  fail  to  notice  that  it  has  become  dingy. 
Many  sales  managers  require  the  salesman  to  set  aside 
one  evening  a  week  in  which  to  go  over  his  equipment 
and  send  in  requisitions  for  replenishments.  In  some 
lines,  cloaks  and  suits,  clothing  and  men's  hats,  for  ex- 
ample, it  is  impossible  to  duplicate  samples  because 
only  one  of  a  kind  is  made  up  for  each  salesman  and 
work  is  not  started  on  the  regular  line  until  after  all 
orders  have  been  received.  In  this  case  the  salesman 
should  be  impressed  with  the  importance  of  keeping 
samples  clean  and  in  good  condition,  and  the  firm 
should  provide  adequate  means  for  his  doing  so. 

11.  Arrangement  and  use  of  equipment. — The 
maxim,  "A  place  for  everything  and  ever>i:hing  in  its 
place,"  applies  with  especial  force  in  the  matter  of 
equipment.  The  salesman  should  be  able  to  lay  his 
hands  on  any  single  piece  without  the  slightest  delay. 
A  break  in  the  selling  talk,  due  to  the  salesman's  in- 


SELLING  METHODS  275 

ability  to  find  a  particular  piece  of  equipment  or  to 
locate  a  certain  indorsement  letter  is  likely  to  interfere 
seriously  with  the  prospect's  interest  and  destroy  the 
possibility  of  a  sale.  The  saleman  should  repack  his 
equipment  in  such  a  way  that  he  will  not  have  to  re- 
arrange it  before  the  next  presentation. 

Above  all,  the  sales  manager  should  impress  upon 
his  salesmen  the  important  fact  that  they  should  use 
the  equipment  to  illustrate  the  selling  talk  and  not 
the  talk  to  explain  the  equipment. 

12.  Sales  manual. — It  is  not  unusual  to  embody  in 
a  sales  manual  all  information  on  selling  talks  and 
sales  methods,  the  handling  of  equipment,  appeals  to 
special  classes  of  prospects,  the  reserve  talks  and  an- 
swers to  objections.  If  a  standard  selling  talk  has 
been  devised,  this  with  its  foot-notes  will  occupy  a 
prominent  place  in  the  manual.  Even  tho  no  stand- 
ard presentation  is  included,  the  best  methods  of  ap- 
proach, demonstration  and  closing  should  be  given  and 
the  various  selling  points  of  the  product  should  be 
enumerated,  in  order  that  the  salesman  thoroly  fa- 
miliar with  the  manual  may  present  his  proposition  in 
an  interesting  and  convincing  manner  and  may  have 
at  his  command  answers  to  questions  and  objections. 

The  manual  should  also  contain  information  con- 
cerning such  office  procedure  and  house  policies  as  is 
necessary  for  the  salesman.  It  may  contain  a  history 
of  the  house  and  of  the  development  of  the  product. 
Nor  are  articles  of  a  purely  inspirational  nature  by 
any  means  out  of  place. 


276  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

13.  A  suggested  table  of  contents. — The  nature  of 
the  contents  of  any  sales  manual  will  depend  upon 
the  requirements  of  the  particular  business.  Follow- 
ing is  a  suggested  table  of  contents  for  a  complete 
loose-leaf  sales  manual.  It  has  been  compiled  prin- 
cipally from  the  sales  manual  of  a  New  York  concern. 

1.  House  Policies. 

2.  Historical  Sketch  of  the  House. 

3.  The  Inside  Organization. 

4.  Discussion  of  the  Principles  of  Salesmanship. 

5.  Detailed  Description  and  Discussion  of  the 
Product  (unless  this  is  fully  covered  in  other  litera- 
ture; or,  the  products  may  be  so  many  and  so  va- 
ried as  to  require  a  separate  catalog  or  price  list,  and 
if  so,  this  section  may  be  omitted). 

6.  SelHng  Equipment. 

7.  Standard  Presentation. 

8.  Notes  on  the  Standard  Presentation. 

9.  Selling  Points. 

(A)  With  different  classes  of  business. 

(B)  With  different  classes  of  prospects. 

10.  Sidelights  and  Stories  which  can  be  Included 
in  the  Selhng  Talk. 

11.  The  Answers  to  the  Usual  Objections. 

12.  Advertising  Activities  and  Policies. 

13.  Instructions  How  to  Organize  and  Handle 
Territory. 

14.  31aniial  should  provide  information  and  inspi- 
ration.— The  sales  manual  should  be  prepared  not 


SELLING  METHODS  277 

only  to  serve  as  a  text-book  for  new  men,  but  also  to  be 
a  source  of  information  and  inspiration  to  the  older 
men  of  the  force.  The  sales  manager  should  en- 
courage the  men  in  the  field  to  read  it  frequently,  so 
that  they  may  be  constantly  reminded  of  the  good 
selling  points  and  the  good  selling  talks  which  they 
may  have  forgotten.  The  preparation  of  the  sales 
manual  is  a  task  worthy  of  the  utmost  care,  for  if  it  is 
really  to  serve  its  purpose,  it  must  be  inspirational  in 
tone  and  rich  in  human  interest. 

15.  Form  of  the  sales  manual. — It  is  not  necessary 
that  the  sales  manual  be  elaborate  in  order  to  fulfil  its 
fimctions.  The  form  is  secondary  in  importance  to 
the  contents.  It  is  neither  necessars^  nor  advisable  to 
have  a  printed  manual  where  the  force  is  small.  Mul- 
tigraphed  sheets  will  serve  as  well.  It  is  a  good  plan 
to  have  the  sales  manual  in  loose-leaf  form,  since  this 
allows  for  necessaiy  changes  and  additions,  and  also 
renders  it  possible  to  make  up  slightly  different  man- 
uals that  will  be  suitable  for  different  classes  of  repre- 
sentatives. For  example,  certain  things  included  in 
the  sales  manuals  of  branch  managers  may  be  omitted 
from  those  of  salesmen  or  dealers. 

16.  Sources  of  material  for  the  manual. — The 
stenographic  reports  of  the  talks  given  in  the  training 
class,  and  those  of  the  proceedings  of  the  annual  sales 
conventions  will  serve  as  the  backbone  of  the  sales 
manual.  If  the  concern  has  had  a  house  organ  for 
any  considerable  period  it  will  be  replete  with  valuable 
selling  suggestions,  which  should  be  collected,  classi- 


278  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

fied  and  organized.  These  ideas  should  be  supple- 
mented by  information  gathered  directly  from  the  men 
in  the  field.  We  have  already  discussed  some  of  the 
methods  of  securing  information  from  the  salesmen. 
It  is  not  unusual  to  go  about  gathering  this  informa- 
tion for  the  sales  manual  in  a  more  fonnal  manner. 
The  salesmen  may  be  requested  to  help  get  up  the 
manual  by  contributing  their  best  selling  talks.  They 
may  be  asked  also  to  state  the  objections  on  the  part 
of  prospects  which  they  find  most  difficult  to  over- 
come. The  objections  should  be  grouped  according 
to  the  vocations  of  those  who  made  them,  then  the 
men  who  are  most  successful  in  selling  to  persons  in 
these  vocations  should  be  asked  to  give  their  best  argu- 
ment in  overcoming  the  objection  in  question.  They 
may  also  be  asked  for  statements  of  the  methods  that 
they  use  in  approaching  and  handling  prospects  in 
their  favorite  fields. 

A  manual  prepared  in  this  way  meets  with  favor 
among  the  men  because  they  feel  that  they  have  helped 
to  write  it,  and  that  it  contains  a  digest  of  all  the 
methods  of  the  best  men  on  the  proposition.  That  is 
most  important.  A  theoretical  or  office-made  manual 
— or  what  amounts  to  the  same  thing,  one  that  is  con- 
sidered such  by  the  men — is  seldom,  if  ever,  satisfac- 
tory. The  sales  manual  in  its  final  form  should  repre- 
sent the  successful  experience  of  the  most  capable 
men  in  the  field.  And  if  the  rehable,  steady  pro- 
ducers of  the  selhng  organization  come  to  refer  to  it  as 


SELLING  METHODS  279 

the  "Bible,"  as  they  do  in  one  organization,  so  much 
the  better. 

17.  Example  of  introduction  to  a  manual. — The 
following  is  the  foreword  of  a  sales  manual  which  has 
been  well  received  by  a  selling  organization: 

This  sales  manual  was  not  written  in  an  office.  It  was 
compiled  from  the  experience  of  3^ou  men  on  the  firing  line. 
Ever3'thing  in  it,  after  having  been  whipped  into  shape  from 
the  experience  of  the  men  in  the  field,  was  submitted  to  you 
for  criticisms  and  suggestions  before  being  put  into  final 
form. 

It  is  your  sales  manual,  therefore.  It  represents  at  this 
time  a  complete  statement  of  all  that  experience  has  proved 
best  in  the  selling  of  our  product.  It  is  put  together  in 
loose-leaf  fonn  so  that  this  statement  will  be  true  no  matter 
when  it  is  read,  for  the  replacing  of  anything  which  time  may 
])ut  into  the  discard,  or  the  adding  of  the  lessons  that  the 
future  will  undoubtedly  teach  us  if  we  are  to  continue  to 
progress,  is  a  simple  matter. 

And  to  you  men  on  the  firing  line  is  assigned  the  duty 
and  responsibility  of  seeing  that  this  sales  manual  is  always 
up  to  the  minute. 

A  detailed  description  of  the  product  to  be  sold  would  find 
u  place  in  most  sales  manuals.  But  a  detailed  description 
of  our  product  is  omitted  here  because  the  subject  received 
exhaustive  treatment  in  the  other  literature  of  the  house, 
which  is  hereby  declared  a  part  of  this  sales  manual. 

REVIEW 

Why  are  new  methods  continually  necessary  ? 

From  what  source  must  all  new  selling  methods  come.''  How 
are  they  best  secured .'' 

Discuss  the  standard  selling  talk,  its  advisability,  its  advan- 
tages   and   disadvantages,   and   its   most   effective   use. 

What   is   meant  by   selling  equipment?     What   may   properly 


280  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

be  expected  of  it?  What  is  the  importance  of  its  having  imagi- 
native appeal?  The  importance  of  compactness  and  complete- 
ness ? 

Can  the  equipment  of  your  salesmen  be  improved? 

Discuss  the  necessity  of  a  sales  manual;  how  one  may  be 
built;  its  mechanical  form;  and  its  contents. 

Has  your  house  a  sales  manual?  If  not,  plan  one  in  all  detail. 
If  so,  how  may  it  be  improved? 


CHAPTER  V 

COMPENSATION  AND  TERRITORY 

1.  What  a  plan  of  compensation  should  accom- 
plish.— The  objects  to  be  considered  in  fixing  the 
amount  of  compensation  and  the  manner  in  which  it 
shall  be  paid  are  to  secure  the  f  ype  of  men  desired ,  to 
keep  them  working  at  maximum  efficiency,  and  to 
retain  them  in  the  organization.  In  this  connection,  it 
should  be  remembered  that  in  the  early  days  of  most 
concerns  a  strong  type  of  specialty  salesman  is  needed, 
and  only  that  type  will  succeed.  Such  men  require 
and  are  entitled  to  fairly  large  incomes.  As  the 
proposition  is  more  widely  advertised  and  becomes 
better  known,  it  gradually  becomes  easier  to  sell 
and  then  a  slightly  different  type  of  salesmen  may 
reasonably  be  expected  to  succeed.  With  training 
methods  fairly  well  established,  younger  men  and  men 
without  selling  experience  may  be  added  to  the  or- 
ganization. It  is  not  necessary  to  provide  large  re- 
muneration for  these  men  at  the  start.  The  average 
cost  of  making  a  sale,  therefore,  can  be  reduced.  This 
should  not  be  understood  to  mean  that  an  effort  should 
be  made  to  reduce  the  incomes  of  those  men  who  have 
sold  the  proposition  in  its  earlier  stages.  The  princi- 
ple applies  only  to  new  men  being  added  to  the  or- 
ganization. 

281 


282  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

2.  Salary  and  expenses. — The  method  of  paying 
salesmen  a  salary  and  expenses  is  the  oldest  and  prob- 
ably the  most  prevalent.  It  affords  the  sales  man- 
ager almost  perfect  control  over  his  men.  They  can 
be  routed  from  town  to  town,  instructed  how  long  to 
stay  in  a  town  and  whom  to  see  while  there.  They 
can  be  required  to  make  out  any  reports  that  the  sales 
manager  may  deem  necessary,  and  can  be  instructed 
to  do  work  other  than  selling  if  emergency  requires. 
If  the  house  deems  it  advisable  to  deal  with  small,  iso- 
lated towns  where  the  sales  will  be  few,  and  is  willing 
to  pay  the  salesman's  salary  for  doing  so,  that  is  the 
business  of  the  house  and  not  of  the  salesman.  The 
same  principle  holds  good  in  the  case  of  missionary 
work  where  no  immediate  sales  are  probable.  A  firm 
which  does  national  advertising  to  create  a  consumer 
demand,  and  which  therefore  desires  ahnost  perfect 
distribution  will  do  well  to  use  the  salary-and-ex- 
penses  basis  of  remuneration. 

3.  Metliods  of  handling  expense  accounts  vary 
widely. — Some  sales  managers  require  the  most  de- 
tailed reports  and  have  each  item  carefully  examuied. 
Others  will  accept  an  account  of  the  most  general 
nature.  It  is  generally  recognized  now  that  con- 
tinual bickerings  with  salesmen  on  the  subject  of  ex- 
penses should  be  avoided  as  much  as  possible.  With 
this  end  in  view,  many  houses  are  allowing  a  flat 
rate  per  day  for  the  salesman's  expenses.  If  the 
salesman  goes  over  this  amount,  it  is  his  personal  loss ; 
and  if  he  spends  less,  the  difference  is  his  gain.     There 


COMPENSATION  AND  TERRITORY.         283 

is,  of  course,  a  danger  here  that  the  salesman  may 
try  to  travel  so  cheaply  as  to  reflect  discredit  on  the 
house,  but  it  is  a  question  as  to  whether  there  is  any 
greater  temjjtation  in  this  case  than  would  be  so  if  the 
salesman  were  itemizing  his  expenses  and  endeavoring 
to  make  monej^  upon  them.  The  tendency  is  toward 
the  flat  expense  allowance. 

4.  Some  drawbacks  of  the  salary  plan. — The  sal- 
ary-and-expenses  method  has,  however,  at  least  one 
great  disadvantage.  The  salesman  has  no  immediate 
incentive  to  strive  unceasingly  after  big  business.  Of 
course,  the  salesman's  salary  is  usually  fixed  by  adding 
his  salary  and  expenses  and  determining  what  per- 
centage of  his  gross  sales  they  constitute,  and  raises 
are  made  on  this  basis  at  the  end  of  the  year.  It 
would  seem  as  if  this  system  would  stimulate  the  men 
to  greater  effort,  but  most  sales  managers  would 
testify  that  it  rather  has  the  effect  of  causing  the  sales- 
man to  slow  down  when  he  is  producing  sufficient 
business  to  warrant  his  present  salary.  This  condi- 
tion is  probably  aggravated  by  reason  of  the  fact  that 
many  houses  seem  averse  to  allowing  a  salesman's  sal- 
ary to  reach  a  high  figure,  even  tho  the  volume  of  his 
sales  would  seem  to  warrant  a  very  large  salary. 

5.  Salary  and  commission. — To  combine  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  salary  plan — the  decided  control  that 
the  firm  has  over  the  salesman — and  the  advantage 
of  the  straight-commission  system — the  incentive  that 
it  gives  salesmen  to  put  forth  their  best  efforts — many 
houses  base  their  compensation  on  a  combination  of 


284.  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

salary  and  commission.  The  salary  is,  of  course, 
smaller  than  if  it  were  the  only  remuneration,  and  the 
rate  of  commission  must  be  about  half,  or  even  less 
than  half,  of  what  could  be  allowed  under  the  straight- 
commission  system.  Under  this  plan  the  salesman's 
expenses  may  or  may  not  be  paid  by  the  house. 
Some  houses,  in  order  to  strengthen  their  control  over 
the  man,  agree  to  pay  his  railroad  expenses,  but  noth- 
ing more. 

6.  Advantages  of  the  salary -commission  plan. — 
There  are  almost  countless  varieties  of  the  salary-and- 
commission  plan  of  payment.  A  usual  practice  is  for 
the  house  to  pay  a  commission  in  addition  to  the 
salary  only  if  the  salesman  takes  a  prescribed  amount 
of  business  above  his  minimum.  Up  to  a  certain 
higher  amount,  a  small  commission  is  paid,  and  be- 
yond this  point,  the  rate  of  commission  gradually  in- 
creases for  increasing  amounts  of  business.  In  lines 
where  the  salesman  is  allowed  freedom  in  quoting 
prices,  he  may  be  informed  of  the  cost  of  each  article 
and  his  commission  may  be  figured  as  a  certain  per- 
centage of  the  price  that  he  secures  over  and  above 
this  cost  figure.  This  method,  of  course,  furnishes  a 
strong  incentive  to  the  salesman  to  hold  up  the  level 
of  prices. 

As  a  general  rule  it  will  be  found  that  seasoned 
salesmen,  particularly  in  specialty  lines,  will  prefer  to 
work  on  a  straight-commission  basis.  The  young  fel- 
low who  has  never  done  any  selling,  however,  is  loath 
to  have  his  remuneration  rest  on  that  basis,  even  if  he 


COMPENSATION  AND  TERRITORY  285 

has  had  a  thoro  training.  The  salary-and-commis- 
sion  system  has  the  advantage  over  the  straight  com- 
mission plan  of  attracting  new  men  of  this  kind  to  the 
organization. 

Increases  in  the  salesman's  compensation  under  this 
plan  may  be  made  either  by  increasing  his  salary  and 
leaving  his  rates  of  commission  the  same,  or  by  leaving 
his  salary  the  same  and  increasing  the  rates  of  com- 
mission. The  former  will  be  found  the  more  feas- 
ible method  if  the  house  has  a  varied  line  and  a  wide 
range  of  commission  rates  on  individual  items. 

7.  Straight  commission. — It  is  often  argued  that 
the  house  knows  what  percentage  of  sales  it  can  afford 
to  pay  out  in  selling  expenses  and  that  it  will  try  to 
avoid  exceeding  the  limit  that  is  set.  In  its  effort  to 
keep  these  expenses  down  it  often  pays  less  than  it 
had  expected  to,  and  in  the  last  analysis  the  salesman's 
compensation  will  always  be  fixed  on  a  percentage-of- 
sales  basis.  Why  not,  then,  pay  this  percentage  out 
as  commission  in  the  first  place?  If  this  is  done  it 
furnishes  the  salesman  with  a  direct  incentive,  inas- 
much as  the  result  of  a  good  week's  work  is  shown  im- 
mediately in  the  size  of  the  salesman's  weekly  remit- 
tance. This  system  virtually  makes  the  salesman  a 
partner  of  the  house,  the  salesman  investing  his 
energy  and  expenses  against  the  house's  capital.  If 
the  salesman  doubles  his  results  he  doubles  his  earn- 
ings. Increases  in  compensation  are  taken  care  of 
automatically.  The  house,  too,  has  the  advantage  of 
knowing  definitely  just  what  its  selling  expense  is 

VI— 20 


286  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

going  to  be.  It  pays  out  nothing  to  the  salesman 
unless  orders  are  actually  received. 

Any  straight-commission  plan  may  be  graded  so  as 
to  offer  additional  compensation  for  length  of  serv- 
ice or  for  large  volume  of  business.  Definite  in- 
creases in  percentages  or  piece  rates  may  be  provided 
for  at  the  end  of  one,  two  and  three  years'  service. 
A  bonus  may  be  paid  for  annual  volume  of  business. 
Monthly  volumes  may  be  taken  care  of  by  a  monthly 
bonus.  In  the  case  of  instalment  sales,  a  special 
bonus  may  be  paid  on  the  first  payment  secured  or  on 
the  average  terms. 

8.  Disadvantages  of  the  straight-commission  plan. 
— This  plan,  too,  has  its  disadvantages.  The  control 
of  the  house  over  the  salesman  is  weakened.  The  lat- 
ter feels  that  he  is  paid  a  commission  for  getting  busi- 
ness and  does  not  consider  himself  under  obligation  to 
make  out  reports.  Even  if  he  allows  the  house  to  di- 
rect his  movements  within  his  territory,  he  will  be  sure 
to  blame  lack  of  business  upon  such  control.  Usually 
he  will  insist  that,  since  his  earnings  are  dependent 
upon  his  good  judgment,  he  should  be  allowed  to  as- 
sume full  direction  of  his  own  work.  It  is  doubtful 
whether  it  is  ever  possible,  by  this  method,  to  direct 
the  salesman  to  the  same  extent  as  under  a  salary 
system. 

There  is  danger,  furthermore,  of  the  salesman's 
feeling  that  he  is  under  no  obligation  to  work  con- 
stantly; he  may  claim  that  since  his  money  stops  when 
he  stops,  whether  he  works  or  not  is  entirely  his  own 


COMPENSATION  AND  TERRITORY  287 

affair.  It  has  been  shown  that  this  attitude  is  likely 
to  cause  fluctuation  in  the  amount  of  business  and 
variations  in  the  expense  of  handling  it  at  the  house. 
The  chances  are,  too,  that  territory  will  not  be  worked 
as  thoroly  as  it  should  be.  In  some  lines,  the  commis- 
sion salesman  can  more  readily  oversell  a  dealer  than 
can  the  salesman  who  is  on  a  salary.  But,  while  there 
are  these  objections  to  the  straight-commission  sys- 
tem, loyalty  and  a  proper  esjDrit  de  corps  in  the  or- 
ganization will  eliminate,  to  some  extent  at  least,  cer- 
tain of  the  disadvantages  that  have  been  enumerated. 
9.  Drawing  account. — Some  houses  allow  a  draw- 
ing account  in  connection  with  the  straight-commission 
plan  of  compensation.  A  salesman  who  has  a  family 
to  support  or  other  obligations  to  meet  is  likely  to 
desire  a  drawing  account  to  guard  against  any  unex- 
pected delay  in  reaching  a  satisfactory  volume  of 
sales.  Another  may  wish  to  equalize  his  income  by 
taking  a  stipulated  amount  each  week  in  place  of 
widely  varying  commission  checks.  And  it  must  be 
admitted  that  some  salesmen  expect  to  be  in  debt  to 
their  concerns  constantly.  There  was  a  tune  when 
drawing  accounts  were  pretty  freely  granted,  and  it 
was  not  unusual  for  an  unscrupulous  individual  to  be 
receiving  one  from  each  of  several  different  sources. 
Most  houses  today,  when  a  drawing  account  is  allowed, 
insist  upon  its  being  regarded  strictly  as  money  bor- 
rowed, which  must  be  repaid  at  the  first  opportunity. 
Overdrafts  are  held  down,  not  only  because  the  sales 
manager  does  not  wish  to  place  himself  in  a  position 


288  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

where  the  salesman's  leaving  would  cause  heavy  loss 
to  the  concern — for  overdrafts  which  are  paid  up  after 
the  salesman  leaves  are  the  exception — but  because 
overdrafts  mean  a  reduction  of  the  concern's  cash 
resources. 

In  a  few  exceptional  cases  the  concern  guarantees 
the  salesman  a  drawing  account.  That  is,  they  agree 
to  pay  him  a  certain  amount  of  money  periodically 
for  a  stipulated  time,  and  this  amount  is  to  be  de- 
ducted from  his  commissions;  but  he  will  be  under  no 
obligation  to  pay  back  any  money  if  his  commissions 
fall  short  of  the  amount  of  the  guaranteed  drawing 
account.  In  general,  the  practice  of  allowing  draw- 
ing accounts  is  being  much  curtailed. 

Some  sales  managers  follow  the  rather  peculiar 
plan  of  continuing  a  salesman  on  a  set  drawing  ac- 
count even  after  his  earnings  exceed  the  draw  and  all 
debit  has  been  wiped  out,  withholding  all  moneys  in 
excess  of  the  draw  and  settling  at  the  end  of  a  six 
months  or  a  year  period.  They  even  go  so  far  as  to 
increase  the  draw  in  much  the  same  way  as  they  would 
increase  a  salesman's  salarj%  providing  the  commis- 
sions credited  to  him  warrant  it.  This  plan  would 
seem  to  nullify  the  big  advantage  of  the  straight-com- 
mission plan — immediate  incentive — while  retaining 
all  of  its  disadvantages. 

On  the  theory  that  the  salesman  who  makes  calls, 
who  sees  prospects  and  tells  his  story,  will  inevitably 
get  business,  a  plan  has  recently  been  devised  whereby 
the  salesman,  in  addition  to  being  paid  a  commission 


COMPENSATION  AND  TERRITORY  289 

on  all  sales,  is  paid  a  small  amount  for  each  first 
call,  each  subsequent  call,  each  call  where  service  is 
rendered,  and  each  demonstration.  In  the  typewriter 
and  check-writing  machine  fields  where  this  plan  was 
applied,  ten  cents  was  paid  for  each  first  call,  five  cents 
for  each  call  other  than  the  first,  fifteen  cents  for  a  call 
where  service  in  the  way  of  adjusting  or  cleaning  a  ma- 
chine was  rendered,  and  twenty-five  cents  for  a  demon- 
stration. One  company  set  a  definite  amount,  be- 
tween three  and  four  dollars,  that  its  salesmen  should 
earn  each  day  entirelj^  aside  from  conmiissions  on 
actual  sales.  A  very  careful  and  detailed  system  of 
reporting  and  checking  all  calls  has  been  worked  out. 
Where  this  plan  has  been  tried,  it  has  only  been  ap- 
plied to  new  men,  the  old  and  established  producers  of 
the  organization  continuing  on  the  old  basis.  It  is 
doubtful  that  high-grade  men,  even  when  new,  would 
take  kindly  to  this  system  in  many  instances. 

10.  Promotion  of  salesmen. — Every  salesman, 
especially  if  he  be  a  good  salesman,  is  ambitious. 
While  his  first  goal  is  to  increase  his  sales  and  his  in- 
come as  a  salesman,  he  will  usually  have  a  latent  ambi- 
tion one  day  to  assume  more  responsibility  on  the  sell- 
ing end  of  the  business.  It  is  not  to  be  expected  that 
the  salesman  will  identify  the  interests  of  the  house 
with  his  own  unless  provision  is  made  for  satisfying  his 
ambition.  With  the  sales  manager  of  broad  vision, 
this  ambition  of  the  salesman  will  be  reciprocated. 
The  sales  manager  will  be  just  as  anxious  for  the 
salesman  to  develop  as  the  latter  is  himself.     The 


290  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

sales  manager  should  see  to  it  that  in  all  reasonable 
ways  his  ambition  for  the  salesman  parallels  the  sales- 
man's ambition  for  himself. 

The  salesman  may  be  tied  to  the  house  by  being  al- 
lowed to  acquire  an  interest  in  the  company.  He 
may  be  encouraged  to  acquire  and  develop  qualifica- 
tions that  will  make  him  first  a  successful  working 
manager  of  a  territory  and  later  manager  of  a  district 
office.  This  should  not  be  difficult.  Ordinarily,  a 
growing  business — and  every  business  under  the  right 
management  will  be  a  growing  business — can  absorb 
men  as  fast  as  they  are  developed.  New  departments 
should  be  headed  by  men  taken  from  and  developed  in 
the  business.  There  will  be  no  definite  limit  to  the 
progress  of  a  business  directed  by  men  developed  in 
this  way  and  by  executives  capable  of  developing  such 
men.  It  is  this  vision  always  before  him  of  the  oppor- 
tunity to  secure  a  position  just  as  big  as  his  ability  en- 
titles him  to  that  will  grapple  the  ambitious  and  able 
salesman  to  the  house  with  hooks  of  steel. 

11.  Considerations  as  to  territory. — Territory  is  a 
distinct  asset  to  the  house.  The  sales  manager  should 
have  a  clear  idea  of  the  value  of  this  asset  and  the  re- 
turns to  be  expected  from  it.  A  territory  that  is  too 
small  will  discourage  the  salesman  and  prevent  his 
producing  a  large  volume  of  sales.  A  territory  that 
is  too  large  will  be  skimmed,  and  the  house  will  not  get 
all  the  business  to  which  it  is  entitled.  In  the  early 
stages  of  a  proposition,  the  territory,  in  comparison 
with  the  number  of  salesman,  is  generally  large,  and 


COMPENSATION  AND  TERRITORY  291 

consequently  the  house  can  be  hberal  with  territory. 
Eventually  there  comes  a  time,  however,  when  terri- 
tory must  be  worked  intensively  if  the  house  is  to  con- 
tinue to  grow.  If,  when  the  house  has  covered  as 
large  an  area  in  search  of  business  as  the  nature  of  its 
products  will  permit,  territories  are  twice  as  large  as 
they  should  be,  the  house  will  be  doing  but  half  the 
business  that  would  be  possible  if  territories  were  di- 
vided in  two  and  the  force  of  salesmen  doubled. 

12.  Blocking  out  territory. — Figures  showing  con- 
ditions in  any  locality  may  be  obtained  from  the  fol- 
lowing sources:  the  United  States  census  and  other 
government  reports,  and  trade  journals;  records  of 
the  firm's  personal  investigations  made  by  the  sales 
manager,  his  assistants  or  field  representatives;  and 
the  publications  of  listing  and  directory  concerns 
whose  business  it  is  to  compile  this  sort  of  information. 

The  sales  manager  will  know  what  kind  of  people 
or  firms  are  possible  prospects.  From  one  of  the 
sources  enumerated,  the  number  of  prospects  in  the 
entire  area  to  be  covered  should  be  ascertained  by  sub- 
divisions. For  example,  if  the  whole  United  States  is 
to  be  covered,  the  number  of  prospects  in  each  county 
may  be  the  basis  of  apportioning  territories.  In  the 
case  of  a  jobbing  house  which  serves  a  more  limited 
area,  the  number  of  prospects  in  each  town  may  be 
tabulated.  Next,  the  number  of  prospects  that  a 
salesman  can  call  upon  daily  should  be  determined. 
Then  it  should  be  decided  how  often  a  territory  must 
be  thoroly  worked.     The  wholesale  grocery  house  will 


292  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

have  its  salesmen  call  upon  its  customers  every  two 
weeks.  The  dry-goods  salesman  will  probably  call 
about  four  times  during  the  year.  In  the  case  of 
some  specialties  where  a  man  is  sold  but  once,  it  may 
be  well  to  allow  a  considerable  time  to  elapse  before  a 
particular  town  or  county  is  gone  over  again.  With 
the  information  indicated  on  hand,  it  will  be  possible 
in  most  lines,  by  multiplying  the  number  of  prospects 
that  can  be  seen  in  a  day  by  the  number  of  days  that 
should  elapse  between  workings  of  a  territory,  to  esti- 
mate the  number  of  prospects  that  should  be  con- 
tained in  the  ideal  territory. 

When  the  number  of  prospects  has  been  deter- 
mined, each  territory  should  be  blocked  out  with  a 
view  to  making  all  parts  as  accessible  as  possible  from 
some  central  starting  point.  Such  a  system  will  di- 
minish the  amount  of  railroad  fares  and  enable  the 
salesman  to  get  to  his  headquarters  more  frequently. 
This  is  especialy  important  when  the  salesman  has  a 
family.  Territories  in  the  East  are  fairly  compact 
while  those  in  sparsely  settled  districts  in  the  West 
may  cover  a  considerable  area  and  necessitate  much 
traveling.  In  other  words,  the  number  of  prospects 
in  an  ideal  territory  in  the  West  will  be  smaller  than 
the  number  in  an  ideal  eastern  territory.  In  appor- 
tioning territory,  it  is  well  to  make  sure  that  each 
salesman  has  just  a  trifle  more  than  he  can  comfort- 
ably handle,  rather  than  less.  At  first  glance  this 
may  appear  wasteful,  but  human  nature  must  always 
be  taken  into  consideration,  and  nothing  will  stifle  a 


COMPENSATION  AN,D  TERRITORY  293 

salesman's  ambition  or  destroy  his  spirit  more  quickly 
than  a  too  restricted  working  area. 

13.  Factors  to  consider  in  territory  readjustments. 
— The  utmost  diplomacy  should  be  used  in  dividing  a 
salesman's  territory  or  taking  away  parts  of  it,  once 
it  has  been  assigned  to  him.  It  is  the  consensus  of 
opinion  that  this  cannot  be  done  arbitrarily  if  the 
salesman  is  to  be  left  satisfied  and  is  to  continue  his 
work  with  the  right  spirit.  Here  again  human  na- 
ture must  be  considered  and  in  practice  it  will  be 
found  advantageous  to  let  territories  continue  larger 
than  they  theoretically  should  be  in  preference  to 
undermining  the  spirit  of  the  selling  organization  and 
possibly  losing  some  of  its  best  men  thru  an  ill-advised 
apportionment  of  territory. 

There  is  a  certain  concern  in  Chicago  which  sells 
a  nationally  advertised  brand  of  clothing.  The  his- 
tory of  this  firm  is  an  interesting  one.  Most  of  its 
salesmen  have  been  with  the  house  since  its  infancy 
and  have  grown  old  and  gray  in  the  service.  In  the 
early  days,  work  was  done  in  a  more  or  less  haphazard 
fashion — no  definite  territory  was  assigned,  but  each 
man  traveled  thru  the  section  of  the  country  which 
seemed  to  need  him  most.  As  a  consequence,  today 
each  member  of  the  sales  force  covers  practically  the 
entire  country,  calling  upon  the  trade  which  he  hap- 
pens to  have  built  up  in  the  earlier  days.  The  men 
cross  and  recross  one  another's  tracks,  and  naturally 
railroad  bills  and  expense  accounts  are  much  higher 
than  they  would  be  under  the  restricted-territory  plan. 


294^  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

The  house,  anxious  to  correct  the  condition,  called  in 
an  outside  sales  counselor,  who  spent  some  time  in 
giving  the  situation  very  careful  study.  Fortunately 
for  the  firm,  this  man  was  sufficiently  broad-gauged  to 
report  that  while  the  present  method  of  covering  the 
country  was  not  as  efficient  as  it  might  be,  he  doubted 
whether  a  change  to  a  restricted-territory  system 
could  be  made  without  undermining  the  happiness, 
and  destroying  the  spirit  of  the  men  who  had  been 
with  the  house  since  the  beginning,  and  to  whom  the 
house  owed  a  debt  of  gratitude  for  the  upbuilding  of 
its  business.  It  was  decided,  therefore,  to  continue 
along  the  old  lines,  changing  to  the  plan  of  geograph- 
ical territory  only  as  new  men  were  added  to  the  sales 
organization  and  excluding  from  those  territories  the 
customers  upon  whom  the  old  men  had  been  calling 
for  years,  until  such  time  as  these  older  members  of 
the  sales  force  were  no  longer  engaged  in  selling  work. 
When  that  time  came,  and  not  until  then,  these  old  ac- 
counts should  be  turned  over  to  the  younger  men. 

Another  house  which  has  faced  the  problem  in- 
volved in  having  large  territories  in  the  hands  of  its 
older  men  has  removed  the  difficulty  by  placing  junior 
salesmen  in  these  territories  with  the  consent  of  the 
older  salesmen  and,  in  addition  to  giving  the  younger 
men  their  regular  compensation,  paying  to  the  older 
men  a  small  commission  on  the  younger  men's  busi- 
ness in  return  for  the  coaching,  direction  and  inspira- 
tion which  the  senior  salesmen  give  the  beginners.  It 
may  be  laid  down  as  a  principle  that  a  territory,  altho 


COMPENSATION  AND  TERRITORY  295 

it  may  obviously  be  too  large,  should  never  be  divided 
until  the  man  in  charge  of  the  territory — especially  if 
he  is  a  good  producer  and  has  been  with  the  house  any 
considerable  length  of  time — has  been  thoroly  sold  on 
the  idea  and  has  been  convinced  that  neither  his  in- 
come nor  his  opportunities  of  progress  will  suffer. 

14.  Routing  the  salesman  in  the  territory. — Where 
the  nature  of  the  business  is  such  that  the  salesman 
moves  rapidly  from  one  town  to  another,  it  is  becom- 
ing more  and  more  the  common  practice  to  route  him 
from  the  home  office,  rather  than  to  allow  him  to  plan 
his  own  itinerary.  This  routing  must  be  done  with 
the  aid  of  a  railroad  map  and  time-tables,  and  must 
be  worked  out  for  each  individual  territory.  Natur- 
ally, the  routing  should  be,  as  far  as  possible,  in  a 
straight  line — from  one  town  to  the  next  nearest  town 
where  there  are  prospects.  Occasionally,  however, 
such  an  arrangement  entails  a  considerable  loss  of 
time  for  the  salesman  because  of  a  disadvantageous 
train  schedule.  It  is  quite  possible  that  he  might  be 
compelled  to  wait  four  hours  for  a  train  to  the  next 
nearest  town,  which  is,  let  us  say,  a  half-hour  distant, 
whei'eas  he  could  make  a  train  to  a  more  distant  town 
immediately  and  double  back  without  any  loss  of  time. 
The  sales  manager  may  sometimes  decide  to  have  the 
salesman  travel  by  carriage  or  auto  from  one  town  to 
another,  rather  than  to  wait  upon  the  train  schedule. 

This  matter  of  routing  is  gi-eatly  simplified,  of 
course,  if  the  house — as  many  now  do — provides  with 
automobiles  those  salesmen  who  are  required  to  travel 


296  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

rapidly  from  place  to  place.  The  advantages  of  this 
plan  are  many.  The  cost  of  maintaining  the  car,  plus 
the  depreciation  on  it,  is  not  greatly  in  excess  of  rail- 
road fare,  especially  if  there  is  any  item  of  excess  bag- 
gage involved.  In  territories  where  the  roads  are 
good,  a  great  deal  of  time  is  saved  by  this  method. 
The  salesman  is  enabled  to  perform  little  services  for 
the  customer  which  would  otherwise  be  out  of  the 
question.  For  example,  one  New  York  grocery  house 
that  supplies  its  men  with  automobiles,  has  instructed 
every  salesman  to  stop  at  the  railroad  freight  house, 
before  he  calls  on  a  customer,  and  find  whether  the 
retailer  has  any  goods  waiting  there.  If  he  has,  the 
salesman  is  to  telephone  the  retailer,  say  that  he  is 
going  to  drop  in,  and  suggest  that  he  bring  the  goods 
with  him. 

The  disadvantages  of  the  automobile  method  of 
travel  are:  the  danger  of  breakdown;  the  fact  that  a 
salesman  after  a  ride  of  any  considerable  distance  may 
not  be  as  presentable  as  he  should  be — especially  if  he 
has  had  tire  or  engine  trouble  on  the  road;  the  fact 
that  when  long  distances  are  to  be  covered,  the  sales- 
man cannot  travel  all  night  and  work  all  day,  as  he 
can  if  he  travels  by  Pullman. 

15.  Apportiofiing  city  territory. — In  handling  a 
product  the  prospects  for  which  are  fairly  numerous, 
it  will  often  be  found  necessary  to  have  more  than  one 
salesman  stationed  in  large  cities.  The  city  may  then 
be  districted,  or  it  may  be  found  advantageous  to  ap- 
portion certain  classes  of  prospects  to  each  salesman 


COMPENSATION  AND  TERRITORY  297 

irrespective  of  the  prospect's  location  in  the  citj\ 
16.  Mini7jium  business  and  guaranteed  territory. — 
It  is  well  to  determine  the  miniinum  volume  of  busi- 
ness that  should  be  expected  from  a  certain  territory 
and  to  insist  that  the  salesman  in  it  should  produce 
that  amount  of  business  or  rehnquish  the  territory  for 
one  less  desirable.  This  estimate  will  be  based  to 
some  extent  upon  the  past  performances  and  the 
ability  of  the  salesman  but  principally  upon  the  possi- 
bilities of  the  territory. 

It  is  common  for  houses  to  guarantee  territory. 
That  is,  a  salesman  will  be  paid  a  commission  or  given 
credit  for  business  coming  from  his  territory  even  tho 
he  maj^  not  have  directly  influenced  the  particular 
sale.  Sometimes  full  commission  or  credit  is  given, 
but  more  often  a  salesman  receives  only  a  percentage 
of  that  to  which  he  would  have  been  entitled  had  he 
taken  the  business  personally.  Usually  a  salesman 
is  started  with  a  concern  without  a  guaranteed  terri- 
tory and  this  is  granted  to  him  later  as  a  reward  for 
increased  business  or  length  of  service. 

REVIEW 

Outline  the  several  plans  of  compensating  salesmen  and  point 
out  the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  each. 

What  may  a  plan  of  compensation  be  expected  to  do? 

Discuss  the  importance  of  making  provisions  for  promotion 
of   salesmen. 

Discuss  the  blocking  out  of  territory ;  the  routing  of  sales- 
man thru  his  territory;  the  considerations  in  readjusting  terri- 
tory. 

How  may  city  territory  be  handled.'' 


CHAPTER  VI 

SALES  RECORDS 

1.  Sales  records  and  statistics. — With  no  attempt 
to  give  a  detailed  description  of  any  of  the  various  sys- 
tems of  records  in  use  in  the  sales  departments  of  busi- 
ness houses  thruout  the  country,  it  is  important  to 
indicate  the  nature  of  the  information  that  a  sales 
manager  should  have  constantly  before  him  or  at  least 
quickly  available.  It  should  not  be  understood  that 
all  of  the  records  and  statistics  enumerated  are  neces- 
sary in  every  case,  since  it  is  unnecessary  to  spend 
money  making  records  of  things  easily  remembered. 
Records  necessary  to  keep  in  constant  touch  with  a 
sales  force  of  one  hundred  would  be  in  great  part  un- 
necessary in  handling  a  force  of  ten.  The  records 
needed  depend  further  upon  the  nature  of  the  busi- 
ness. It  must  be  left  to  the  reader  to  decide  the  par- 
ticular kind  of  information  that  he  should  have  avail- 
able in  his  business.  As  a  general  rule,  the  house 
which  sells  a  large  number  of  items  will  require  more 
detailed  information  and  a  greater  variety  of  statistics 
than  that  which  handles  but  one  product. 

Sales  department  records  and  statistics  are  com- 
piled from  orders  received,  from  special  analyses  of 
field  conditions  and  from  reports  sent  in  by  the  sales- 

298 


SALES  RECORDS  299 

men.  In  this  connection  it  should  be  constantly 
borne  in  mind  that  the  salesman  should  not  be  loaded 
up  with  too  large  an  amount  of  purely  clerical  work. 
The  salesman  is  easily  disgusted  and  discouraged 
when  he  has  to  spend  a  considerable  portion  of  his  eve- 
nings in  filling  out  different  reports.  The  tempera- 
ment that  makes  a  man  sell  goods  most  readily,  is 
usually  not  one  that  makes  him  take  kindly  to  the 
careful  detail  work  necessary  m  making  out  reports. 
In  making  such  reports  the  salesman  is  likely  to  ex- 
pend more  energy  for  a  given  result  than  would  one 
who  liked  careful  detailed  work.  It  is  well  to  remem- 
ber that  the  salesman  has  just  so  much  energy  to  ex- 
pend and  to  allow  him  to  devote  practically  all  of  it  to 
pure  selling  work. 

Salesmen  working  on  a  commission  will  act  as  a 
safety  valve  on  the  sales  manager  who  expects  too 
much  report  work;  but  even  where  the  salesmen  are 
working  on  straight  salaries,  the  sales  manager  would 
do  well  to  determine  just  what  proportion  of  the  en- 
ergy which  he  purchases  to  use  in  the  selling  of  goods, 
should  be  employed  in  other  channels.  If  the  reports 
required  of  salesmen  in  the  field  are  too  detailed  or 
too  numerous  it  sometimes  happens  that  the  salesman 
who  turns  in  the  greatest  volume  of  business  is  the 
most  careless  about  his  reports,  and  that  the  man  who 
turns  in  the  best  reports  does  the  least  business.  The 
sales  manager  will  then  be  forced  to  decide  whether  it 
is  business  or  reports  that  he  most  desires  from  the 
men  in  the  field.     Nevertheless,  there  are  certain  re- 


300  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

ports  that  only  the  salesmen  in  the  field  can  furnish. 
His  diligence  in  so  doing  should  be  as  greatly  ap- 
preciated and  as  adequately  rewarded  as  his  ability  to 
get  business. 

2.  Records  of  tvork  in  territory. — The  practice  of 
making  permanent  records  of  the  work  done  by  the 
salesmen  in  the  several  territories  varies  with  different 
concerns  and  in  different  lines  of  business.  In  some 
cases  very  complete  information  is  desired,  and  a  card 
is  written  for  each  prospect  in  the  territory.  Dupli- 
cate cards  are  then  forwarded  to  the  salesman  a  short 
time  before  he  calls  upon  the  prospects.  The  sales- 
man, after  he  has  made  his  call,  reports  tlie  result  of 
the  interview  on  the  card.  A  certain  limit  for  the  re- 
turning of  these  reports  may  be  set  and  a  tickler  sys- 
tem installed  to  see  that  reports  are  made.  The  sales- 
man calling  upon  new  prospects  of  his  own  initiative 
may  report  on  blank  cards  furnished  for  that  purpose. 
These  are  the  general  outlines  on  one  of  many  systems 
that  may  be  provided  to  keep  track  of  the  thoroness 
with  which  territory  is  worked.  Thoro  records  of  this 
nature  when  they  are  not  too  expensive  will  do 
much  to  point  out  opportunities  for  increased 
business. 

3.  Robert  H.  Ingersoll  and  Brother  territorial  rec- 
ords.— Probably  the  most  complete  record  of  this  sort 
— especially  considering  that  the  product  sold  is  low 
in  price,  and  the  number  of  possible  customers  par- 
ticularly large — is  that  recently  installed  by  Robert 
H.  Ingersoll  and  Brother,  marketers  of  the  well- 
known  Ingersoll  watches.     This  house  is  credited  with 


SALES  RECORDS  301 

having  established  an  almost  perfect  distribution  of 
its  product  in  spite  of  keen  competition  and  price 
cutting. 

From  all  available  sources — trade  lists,  general  and 
special  directories,  listing  companies,  and  the  like-r- 
the  names  of  all  dealers  who  might  handle  the  Inger- 
soll  line  have  been  procured.  The  labor  of  doing  this 
work  so  as  to  cover  the  entire  country  will  be  appre- 
ciated when  it  is  pointed  out  that  the  Ingersoll  line  is 
handled  not  only  by  jewelers  but  bj^  stationers,  drug- 
gists, hardware  dealers  and  numerous  specialty  shops, 
to  say  nothing  of  post-card  and  novelty  shops  and 
souvenir  stores  in  various  localities. 

These  names  are  carded  in  duplicate  on  a  specially 
designed  form  and  filed  geographically  according  to 
states,  cities  being  filed  alphabetically  behind  each 
state  and  individual  dealers  alphabetically  behind  each 
city.  Several  days  before  a  salesman  is  expected  to 
visit  a  town,  the  original  cards  on  that  town  are  taken 
out  of  the  file  and  sent  to  him,  the  guide  card  con- 
taining the  name  of  the  town  being  signalled  at  the 
same  time  and  an  entry  made  upon  it,  showing  to 
whom  the  original  cards  were  sent  and  the  date  of 
shipment.  The  duplicate  cards  which  are  left  in  file 
act  as  a  tickler  on  individual  cards. 

These  records  are  of  course  incomplete  and  often 
incorrect.  No  matter  how  thoroly  any  number  of 
lists  may  be  combed,  an  actual  survey  of  a  town  is 
almost  certain  to  reveal  dealers  in  various  lines  who 
can  handle  the  Ingersoll  line  to  advantage,  but  whose 

VI— 21 


302  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

names  have  not  been  obtained  from  any  of  the  sources 
used.  The  salesman  is  required  to  make  out  a  card 
for  these  and  report  upon  them  in  the  same  manner 
as  upon  the  dealers  whose  names  are  furnished  by  the 
house.  On  the  other  hand,  many  who  from  the  lists 
and  directories  would  seem  to  be  logical  dealers  in 
the  line,  will,  upon  inspection,  be  found  unavailable 
for  one  reason  or  another.  The  first  thing  that  a 
salesman  checks  on  the  card,  therefore,  is  the  question 
of  whether  or  not  the  dealer  is  available  as  a  handler 
of  Ingersoll  watches. 

The  variety  of  detailed  information  which  the  com- 
pany expects  eventually  to  have  instantly  available 
on  every  individual  prospect  is  indicated  by  some  of 
the  questions  the  salesman  is  required  to  answer  and 
for  which  spaces  are  provided  on  the  form.  He  must 
decide  and  indicate,  for  example,  whether  each  dealer 
is  "essential"  or  "non-essential."  The  Ingersoll  Com- 
pany classes  as  essential,  those  dealers  who,  because  of 
the  size  of  their  trade,  their  conmianding  locations,  or 
their  progressive  methods,  should  carry  the  hne  if  dis- 
tribution is  to  be  complete.  In  every  town,  there  is  a 
stationer,  a  druggist  or  a  hardware  merchant — and  in 
some  cases  there  are  all  three — who  commands  the 
best  or  largest  trade  in  his  line.  In  larger  cities, 
where  there  are  several  large  business  centers,  there 
are  sure  to  be  one  or  more  dealers  in  each  center  who 
occupy  a  commanding  position  in  their  trade.  In 
many  cases,  there  will  be  dealers  who  without  doing  a 


SALES  RECORDS  303 

large  business  are  important  in  their  communities  be- 
cause of  progressive  advertising  and  merchandising 
methods.  These  will  indicate  the  classes  of  possible 
dealers  which  the  Ingersoll  Company  considers  as  "es- 
sential." In  making  this  classification  it  is  not  the 
idea  of  the  company  to  secure  the  essential  dealers  and 
to  neglect  the  others.  But  the  smaller  and  so-called 
"non-essential"  dealers  will  be  more  easily  procured  as 
handlers  of  the  hne  after  the  essential  dealers  have 
been  secured.  Furthermore,  the  company  takes  this 
classification  into  consideration  in  its  distribution  of 
advertising  cuts,  indoor  and  outdoor  display  signs  and 
counter  display  fixtures. 

Spaces  are  provided  on  the  record  card  in  which 
the  salesman  may  check  the  merchant's  evident  care  of 
his  windows  and  the  frequency  with  which  he  dresses 
them ;  the  amount,  nature  and  effectiveness  of  any  ad- 
vertising the  merchant  may  do;  his  general  progres- 
siveness  and  merchandising  ability  as  indicated  by 
these  things  and  by  his  methods  of  keeping,  caring  for 
and  displaying  his  stock — not  only  his  watch  stock, 
but  all  other  lines  as  well;  and  his  rate  of  turnover 
both  of  the  Ingersoll  line  and  his  entire  line  as  well. 
This  information  is  used  by  the  company's  service  de- 
partment in  keeping  in  touch  with  the  dealer  and  sug- 
gesting to  him  ways  and  means  of  increasing  the 
volume  of  his  sales.  Here  again  it  is  the  policy  of 
the  company  not  to  confine  advice  to  the  turning  over 
of  Ingersoll  products,  but  to  extend  it  to  everj^thing 


804^  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

that  the  merchant  carries,  as  the  company  rehes  upon 
the  general  improvement  in  his  merchandising  to  have 
a  beneficial  effect  on  the  Ingersoll  watch  sales. 

Furthermore,  the  salesman  is  asked  to  indicate 
whether  the  dealer  has  been  carrying  the  Ingersoll  line 
in  the  past,  whether  or  not  he  carries  a  competing  line 
and  to  note  the  approximate  sales  of  each.  Spaces 
are  also  provided  on  the  back  of  the  card  for  a  record 
of  each  order  that  the  salesman  secures  and  turns  in. 

Eventually  the  information  indicated,  and  much 
more,  will  be  available  on  every  merchant  in  the  coun- 
try handling  the  Ingersoll  lines,  and  will  be  kept  up  to 
date  by  subsequent  visits  of  the  salesmen.  The  sales- 
man will  know  before  he  calls  upon  a  man  just  what 
sort  of  merchant  he  is,  whether  or  not  he  handles  a 
competing  line,  whether  or  not  he  has  been  buying  the 
Ingersoll  line  and  if  so,  at  what  intervals,  and  in  what 
quantities;  in  short,  both  the  salesman  and  the  house 
have  a  fairly  good  basis  for  judgment.  All  informa- 
tion indicated  on  the  card  sent  in  by  the  salesman  is 
transferred  to  the  office  duplicate  after  each  visit  so 
that  even  tho  the  original  be  in  the  salesman's  hands 
or  lost,  the  house  has  available  at  all  times  a  complete 
record. 

With  the  aid  of  the  Hollerith  Tabulating  Machine, 
various  tabulations  are  made  from  these  records  and 
from  the  actual  orders  turned  in,  as  to  the  sale  of  each 
grade  of  watch  in  each  finish ;  of  sales  by  cities,  coun- 
ties and  states;  of  the  volume  of  sales  all  over  the 
country  in  towns  of  a  given  size;  and  of  the  size  of 


SALES  RECORDS  305 

the  average  order,  in  different  localities,  in  different 
lines  of  business,  and  in  different  sized  towns. 

4.  Salesman's  daily  report. — The  salesman  should 
be  required  to  report  daily  the  names  of  the  prospects 
or  customers  upon  whom  he  has  called  and  the  results 
of  each  interview.  This  report  shows  his  day's  work 
and  reflects  the  conditions  of  trade  in  the  territory. 
In  every  case  where  no  sale  has  been  made,  a  definite 
reason  should  be  given.  The  salesman  should  not  be 
required  to  report  on  the  same  prospects  on  two  dif- 
ferent forms  if  that  can  be  avoided.  For  example, 
if  he  reports  the  results  of  an  interview  on  a  prospect 
card  furnished  by  the  house,  he  should  not  be  required 
to  give  the  same  information  a  second  time  on  another 
blank.  This  should  be  considered  in  determining  the 
form  of  daily  report.  When  two  records  are  neces- 
sary it  will  be  found  cheaper  to  employ  clerical  help 
to  make  the  second  one  in  the  office. 

5.  Salesman's  daily  letter. — While  the  daily  letter 
which  the  salesman  writes  to  the  sales  manager  may 
not  be  a  record  in  some  of  the  senses  of  the  word,  it 
is  the  most  important  single  thing  that  the  salesman 
sends  in  to  the  sales  manager.  The  salesman  should 
be  encouraged  to  write  long,  intimate  letters.  AVith- 
out  them,  the  sales  manager  cannot  keep  in  the  closest 
possible  touch  with  tlie  salesman's  work  nor  be  of  the 
greatest  possible  help  to  him.  The  regularity  witli 
which  salesmen  write  sucli  letters  to  tlieir  sales  man- 
ager— or,  in  some  cases,  the  f r.et!\uency  with  which  they 
neglect  to  do  so — will  go  a  great  way  toward  indicat- 


306  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

ing  the  frame  of  mind  of  the  individual  and  the  spirit 
of  the  organization. 

6.  Tabulations  of  sales. — The  sales  manager  should 
have  constantly  before  him  in  some  graphic,  instantly 
readable  form  a  tabulation  of  each  individual's  daily 
sales  for  the  current  month  and  monthly  sales  for  the 
current  year.  Similar  records  for  previous  years 
should  also  be  instantly  available.  Where  the  line  is 
varied,  the  tabulation  should  show  the  volume  of  sales 
by  items  or  classes  of  goods.  Similar  records  for  the 
organization  as  a  whole  shou'ld  also  be  available.  The 
totals  on  the  daily  individual  record  will  frequently  be 
the  basis  for  computing  the  latter.  In  connection 
with  the  individual  record,  the  salesman's  percentage 
of  quota,  when  one  has  been  assigned,  or  his  standing 
in  any  contest  that  may  be  running,  should  be  indi- 
cated. A  tabulation  of  the  earnings  of  the  individual 
salesman,  where  men  are  on  a  commission  basis,  should 
be  available  for  the  entire  length  of  his  connection  with 
the  house.  These  records  can  be  used  by  the  sales 
manager  or  his  assistants  in  writing  to  the  salesmen 
daily  letters  that  will  be  stimulating  and  helpful. 

If  there  are  branch  offices,  reports  should  be  re- 
quired from  them  daily.  It  may  be  that  the  indi- 
vidual salesman  will  be  handled  by  the  branch  man- 
ager, in  which  case  much  of  the  detailed  information 
required  will  be  reported  to  the  branch  offices.  Many 
sales  managers  who  are  establishing  selling  offices, 
however,  find  that  it  is  best  to  keep  in  touch  with  each 
individual  salesman  directly  from  the  home  office  and 


SALES  RECORDS  307 

in  such  cases  keep  full  detailed  information  at  head- 
quarters and  write  to  each  salesman  daily. 

7.  Sales7nan's  route  card. — If  the  salesman  is  mov- 
ing rapidly  from  place  to  place  and  his  route  has  not 
been  settled  definitely  before  the  start  of  the  trip,  the 
sales  manager  should  be  kept  in  constant  touch  with 
his  movements  by  means  of  daily  or  weekly  route 
cards  showing  the  towns  in  which  he  will  be  on  certain 
dates  and  the  hotels  at  which  he  may  be  reached.  It 
has  been  found  advantageous  to  have  this  card  of  a 
size  convenient  for  filing. 

8.  Reports  on  customers. — It  may  be  found  advis- 
able to  have  the  salesman  report  on  each  individual 
customer  upon  whom  he  calls,  either  as  a  supplement 
to  or  a  substitute  for  his  daily  report.  In  the  selling 
of  a  varied  line,  for  example,  the  sales  manager  will 
want  to  know  in  regard  to  each  class  of  goods  whether 
the  customer  still  has  a  large  proportion  of  the  previ- 
ous order  on  his  shelves,  whether  he  has  been  sold  on 
the  trip  or  is  a  future  prospect;  whether  he  has  been 
stocked  by  a  competitor,  and,  if  so,  when  he  will  again 
be  in  the  market. 

In  other  cases,  it  may  be  found  necessary  to  have 
the  salesman  supplement  the  work  of  the  credit  de- 
partment by  reporting  on  the  financial  standing  of 
the  customer,  the  class  of  his  trade  and  the  general 
condition  of  his  store  and  stock.  The  re])ort  on  the 
individual  customer  will  be  found  a  valuable  record 
for  the  service  department  both  in  acknowledging  the 
initial  order  and  in  writing  subsequent  letters.     Cor- 


308  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

respondents  with  this  information  can  write  letters  on 
specific  topics  which  affect  the  customer's  individual 
interests  and  avoid  generalities.  The  customer's  re- 
port will  also  enahle  the  house  to  give  the  salesman  at 
any  future  time  specific  information  as  to  previous 
purchases. 

9.  Maps. — A  nest  of  maps — a  cabinet  consisting  of 
shallow  drawers  in  which  the  maps  are  pasted — is  es- 
sential. In  the  case  of  the  house  selling  a  product 
nationally,  maps  of  each  state  should  be  provided. 
When  a  concern  covers  a  more  limited  territory,  there 
should  be  provided*  maps  of  the  individual  counties 
contained  in  the  area  in  which  the  company  operates. 
On  these  maps,  the  territories  of  the  individual  sales- 
man should  be  indicated  by  being  outlined  either  with 
tacks  and  a  string  or  with  colored  crayon.  The  city 
in  which  the  salesman  has  his  headquarters  may  be 
indicated  by  suitable  marking.  Branch  offices,  deal- 
ers or  agencies  may  be  indicated.  The  salesman's 
progress  on  a  trip  thru  his  territory  may  be  shown 
by  driving  a  tack  in  each  town  visited  and  stringing 
a  colored  cord  from  one  to  the  other.  A  further  re- 
finement is  to  show  various  trips  during  the  year  in 
different  colored  cords. 

When  the  information  noted  on  the  map  changes 
infrequently,  the  use  of  colored  crayon  will  be  found 
much  simpler  and  more  satisfactory  than  the  use  of 
tacks  and  string.  The  latter  are  always  likely  to  be- 
come disarranged.  Even  in  cases  where  the  informa- 
tion recorded  changes  rapidly  it  is  an  easy  matter  to 


SALES  RECORDS  309 

use  colored  crayons  and  have  the  marked-up  maps  re- 
placed frequently  with  fresh  ones. 

10.  Monthly  tabulations  of  sales. — The  sales  man- 
ager should  have  tabulated  a  monthly  record  of  the 
number  of  sales,  the  volume  of  sales,  the  classes  of 
goods  sold,  and,  if  practicable,  the  terms  on  which 
sales  were  made.  Such  a  record  enables  him  to  see  at 
a  glance  which  goods  are  moving  rapidly,  to  devise 
plans  for  the  pushing  of  goods  showing  a  larger  profit, 
to  forecast  the  future  volume  of  rates  in  each  line, 
and  to  compare  results  with  those  of  previous  periods. 

11.  Other  possible  information. — The  statistical 
records  that  may  be  compiled  from  the  information 
available  will  vary  with  different  lines  of  business. 
They  should  be  sufficient  to  enable  the  sales  manager 
to  make  all  necessary  comparisons.  It  may  be  found 
advantageous  to  have  charts  showing  the  relations  of 
sales  to  prospects;  the  relation  of  cost  to  sales;  and 
relations  of  sales  in  one  section  to  those  in  another. 
The  sales  manager  may  find  it  advantageous  to  sub- 
scribe to  one  of  the  reporting  services  which  make  a 
business  of  furnishing  information  on  which  to  base 
judgment  of  business  conditions  and  selling  oppor- 
tunities in  various  parts  of  the  country. 

Too  many  records,  however,  are  almost  as  confus- 
ing as  too  few.  All  cost  money.  It  should  be  borne 
in  mind  constantly  that  sales  records  and  statistics 
liave  two  general  j^urposes:  first,  to  enable  the  sales 
manager  to  gauge  the  business  that  the  organization 
should  secure,  and  to  see  what  percentage  of  this  it  is 


310  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

securing,  so  that  he  may  put  his  finger  on  the  weak 
spots ;  to  show  him  what  classes  of  goods  sell  best  and 
why,  and  to  indicate  the  producing  ability  of  each 
salesman ;  and,  secondly,  to  furnish  the  salesman  with 
the  greatest  possible  measure  of  assistance  and  co- 
operation in  the  field. 

REVIEW 

What  sales  records  and  statistics  are  necessary — in  general? 
In  your  business  ? 

Give  the  essentials  of  the  Ingersoll  territorial  records. 

Discuss  the  salesman's  daily  reports;  reports  on  customers; 
daily  letters ;  route  cards. 

Discuss  tabulations  of  sales. 


CHAPTER  VII 

COOPERATION  WITH  SALESMEN 

1.  Biggest  tiling  in  sales  management. — To  get  the 
best  out  of  the  men  in  the  field  is  the  sales  manager's 
real  task,  the  end  of  all  sales  management.  Some 
sales  managers  claim  that  this  is  the  only  thing  they 
should  be  called  upon  to  do,  and  some  houses  insist 
that  the  energies  of  their  sales  managers  be  directed  to 
this  end  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  duties.  Assum- 
ing that  the  sales  manager  is  a  broad-gauge,  all-round 
business  man  and  that  his  authority  and  activities  have 
the  wide  scope  indicated  in  previous  chapters,  this 
is  sound  doctrine.  The  sales  manager  should  be  care- 
ful to  delegate  to  others  all  routine  work  and  as  much 
detail  as  is  practicable,  so  that  he  shall  have  time, 
thought  and  energy  to  devote  to  his  most  important 
object  of  getting  the  best  out  of  every  individual 
member  of  his  organization. 

2.  ''Ginger"  versus  cooperation. — A  sales  manager 
once  sent  out  to  each  of  his  men  a  letter  reading  in 
part  as  follows:  "Why  did  you  fall  down  in  making 
the  sale?  For  your  own  benefit  and  ours,  write  me 
frankly."  He  was  rather  startled  to  receive  from 
one  of  his  men  this  reply:  "Because  I  did  not  know 
my  goods.     You  have  been  filling  us  so  full  of  'ginger' 

311 


312  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

and  'boost'  that  we  have  not  had  a  chance  to  learn  any- 
thing about  the  goods." 

There  would  seem  to  be  two  distinct  classes  of  sales 
managers,  one  with  the  pure  "ginger"  idea  of  stirring 
the  men  up  to  get  the  most  from  them ;  and  the  other 
with  the  broader  view  of  giving  the  men  an  oppor- 
tunity to  know  their  goods,  of  helping  them  over  the 
rough  spots,  and  of  aiding  them  to  build  up  their  char- 
acters and  capacities  and  to  realize  their  ambitions. 

Salesman  do  not  take  as  kindly  to  being  "gingered" 
continually  as  some  sales  managers  fondly  imagine. 
Salesmen,  as  well  as  all  other  men,  like  a  game  and 
enjoy  the  introduction  of  the  game  spirit  into  their 
work,  but  it  must  be  realized  that  they  are  capable, 
intelligent  and  ambitious  men.  They  demand  that  a 
large  amount  of  common  sense  be  mixed  with  the 
game  if  it  is  to  be  successful.  From  the  sales  man- 
ager's point  of  view,  pure  "ginger"  methods  are  in- 
efficient, because  the  enthusiasm  they  generate  is  not 
lasting.  The  "ginger"  idea  has  a  place  in  sales  man- 
agement only  when  it  has  back  of  it  a  profound  love 
for  the  men  of  the  organization,  a  keen  realization  of 
their  problem  and  difficulties,  and  a  sincere  desire  to 
give  them  real  cooperation. 

With  these  considerations  in  mind,  let  us  consider 
the  various  tested  methods  of  getting  the  best  from 
the  members  of  the  selling  organization. 

3.  Visiting  the  men  in  the  field. — When  the  sales- 
men get  into  the  house  but  once  or  twice  a  year,  or 
have  headquarters  in  their  territories  and  see  the  home 


COOPERATION  WITH  SALESMEN  313 

office  only  when  a  convention  is  held,  the  sales  man- 
ager will  do  well  to  arrange  one  or  two  trips  annually 
during  which  he  will  visit  and  possibly  work  with  each 
member  of  his  organization.  Those  whom  he  cannot 
see  should  be  visited  by  his  principal  assistant. 
When  the  sales  manager  and  his  assistant  can  each 
make  two  trips  a  year,  those  visited  by  the  assistant  on 
the  first  trip  should  be  visited  by  the  sales  manager  on 
the  second,  and  vice  versa.  There  is  nothing  that  will 
put  the  sales  manager  closer  to  his  men,  and  secure  a 
greater  measure  of  their  loyalty  and  enthusiastic  sup- 
port, than  to  sit  down  with  them  in  their  own  head- 
quarters, discuss  territory  conditions,  and  get  ac- 
quainted with  their  wives  and  families. 

In  the  case  of  a  general  sales  manager  having  con- 
trol of  a  number  of  district  offices,  he  will  confine  his 
visits  to  the  district  managers,  but  the  district  man- 
ager should,  in  turn,  keep  in  touch  with  the  individual 
men. 

A  variation  of  this  plan  of  visits  in  the  field  is  the 
calling  of  individual  men  to  the  home  office  for  con- 
ference regarding  their  work  and  the  conditions  in 
their  territorities. 

4.  Daily  letters. — The  salesman  is  apt  to  be  sensi- 
tive and  highly  strung.  If  he  were  not,  he  would  be 
but  an  indifferent  salesman.  Each  rebuff,  each  dis- 
couragement, each  discourtesy  is  likely  to  take  just  a 
little  of  the  edge  from  his  enthusiasm.  Tliis  enthusi- 
asm must  be  renewed  from  some  source  and,  with  few 
exceptions,  salesmen  will  not  find  the  source  within 


314.  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

themselves.  The  only  source  then  is  contact  with  the 
men  from  the  home  office.  For  this  reason  alone  the 
sales  manager,  or  in  the  case  of  a  large  force  his  prin- 
cipal assistant,  should  write  every  day  to  each  indi- 
vidual member  of  the  organization  a  stimulating, 
friendly  letter.  So  important  are  such  letters  that 
nothing  should  be  allowed  to  stand  in  the  way  of  get- 
ting them  out.  Great  care  should  be  taken  to  mail 
the  letter  to  the  proper  town;  a  salesman  who  is  look- 
ing forward  to  an  inspiring  message  from  his  sales 
manager  will  not  be  one  hundred  per  cent  efficient  if 
this  message  fails  to  arrive.  Furthermore,  when  two 
or  three  letters  reach  a  man  at  the  same  time  they 
will  not  generate  the  same  amount  of  enthusiasm 
as  when  the  same  letters  reach  him  on  separate 
days. 

In  this  connection,  it  should  be  remembered  that  a 
holiday  when  no  letters  are  written  from  the  home  of- 
fice will  cause  the  salesman  to  be  without  his  daily  let- 
ter on  a  later  working  day.  To  take  care  of  this,  it 
may  be  well  to  get  out  a  double  amount  of  letters  on 
the  day  preceding  and  delegate  some  member  of  the 
office  force  to  mail  them  on  the  holiday.  In  lieu  of 
this,  the  sales  manager  may  get  out  a  post  card  con- 
taining some  timely  message  in  multigraphed  form 
or  send  to  each  man  in  the  organization  an  ordinary 
picture  post  card  on  which  he  has  written  some  per- 
sonal message.  The  latter  course  can  profitably  be 
followed,  also,  when  the  sales  manager  or  his  assistant 
is  out  on  the  road.     In  the  latter  case,  the  salesman 


COOPERATION  WITH  SALESMEN  315 

will  receive  the  personal  card  in  addition  to  his  usual 
daily  letter  from  the  office. 

5.  Contents  of  daily  letter. — In  these  letters  the 
salesmen  should  be  thanked  sincerely  for  the  orders 
received  from  them  that  day  or  for  contributions  to 
the  house  organ.  They  should  be  complimented  upon 
any  good  work  they  may  have  been  doing  and  should 
receive  sound  advice  from  the  sales  manager  on  any 
deals  that  may  be  before  them.  The  message  will,  in 
general,  be  based  upon  the  letter  received  that  morn- 
ing from  the  salesman. 

As  far  as  it  is  possible,  criticisms  should  be  kept  out 
of  these  letters.  When  it  is  absolutely  necessary,  it 
should  be  given  in  a  manner  which  will  increase  rather 
than  decrease  the  salesman's  efficiency.  A  salesman 
who  has  been  doing  his  best,  but  who  for  some  reason 
has  not  been  producing  normal  results,  needs  friendly 
encouragement  and  sound  suggestions  rather  than 
criticisms.  Nothing  will  so  effectively  destroy  the  pro- 
ducing power  of  a  loyal  salesman  as  a  sharp, fault-find- 
ing letter  from  the  sales  manager.  If  the  salesman 
has  been  derehct  and  it  is  necessary  for  the  sake  of 
discipline  that  he  be  reprimanded,  the  language  in 
which  the  reprimand  is  couched  should  be  given  care- 
ful consideration.  There  is  no  phase  of  the  sales  man- 
ager's duty  in  which  he  is  called  upon  to  exercise  more 
tact  and  real  executive  ability  than  in  his  letters  to 
his  men.  His  one  purpose  is  to  increase  sales,  and 
he  should  have  in  mind  the  effect  which  each  letter  is 
likely  to  have  upon  the  productiveness  of  the  salesman. 


316  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

6.  Special  paragraphs. — There  should  be  included 
in  this  daily  letter  some  one  inspiring  thought,  helpful 
suggestion  or  piece  of  news.  This  part  of  the  letter 
will  be  applicable  to  all  men  in  the  organization  and 
will  therefore  be  written  each  morning  in  the  form  of 
special  paragraphs,  to  be  typed  either  preceding  or 
following  the  purely  personal  dictation.  No  attempt 
is  made  to  hide  from  the  salesman  the  fact  that  such 
paragraphs  are  included  in  the  letters  to  the  other  men 
in  the  organization.  They  are,  however,  worded  so 
that  it  is  sometimes  difficult  for  the  salesman  to  deter- 
mine just  where  the  personal  dictation  leaves  off  and 
the  special  paragraphs  begin.  If  no  letter  has  been 
received  from  the  salesman  or  if  there  is  nothing  of 
importance  to  communicate  to  him  that  day,  the 
special  paragraphs  may  be  sent  unaccompanied  by 
personal  dictation. 

This  form  paragraph  may  convey  some  information 
regarding  changes  of  house  policies  or  prices,  some 
piece  of  good  news  concerning  the  house  or  some 
purely  inspirational  thought  or  suggestion  as  to  a  new 
method  of  selling  which  the  salesman  may  carry  into 
the  field  with  him  that  day.  Much  depends  upon  the 
nature  of  the  business;  much  depends  also  upon  the 
tj^pe  of  sales  manager  and  salesmen.  The  following 
represent  the  more  inspirational  type  of  paragraph: 

7.  Special  paragraphs  illustrated. — 

ON    CLOSING   THE    INTERVIEW 

How  many  of  your  prospects  do  you  lose  because  you  give 
them  up  too  easily?     Every  salesman  loses  business  by  be- 


COOPERATION  WITH  SALESMEN  317 

coming  too  easily  discouraged.  Oftentimes  a  prospect  will 
tell  you  "no"  when  he  really  does  not  mean  it.  He  is  wait- 
ing for  some  further  reason,  advanced  by  you,  in  order  to 
satisfy  himself  thoroly  that  he  should  take  up  our  proposi- 
tion. 

As  long  as  there  is  a  flicker  of  interest  in  3'^our  prospect 
you  have  no  right  to  leave  him.  Be  persistent,  but  at  the 
same  time  diplomatic.  Come  back  at  him  from  another 
angle  and  hammer  along  those  lines  that  you  know  are  of 
greatest  interest  to  your  prospect.  You  leave  lots  of  men 
who  are  almost  persuaded ;  a  little  more  thought  on  your 
part,  a  little  more  persistency,  and  a  little  more  diplomacy 
will  close  many  an  order  that  otherwise  is  lost. 

Work  up  a  fighting  spirit — that  "never-say-die"  spirit  will 
carry  you  thru  and  turn  your  failures  into  successes. 

ON   QUOTAS 

There  are  eight  more  days  in  February  and  so  far  you 
have  fallen  short  of  the  quota  that  I  had  hoped  you  would 
reach.  Won't  you  put  forth  an  extra  effort  for  the  remain- 
ing few  days  of  the  month  so  that  your  own  earnings  will 
be  somewhere  near  what  you  should  be  making? 

I  realize  the  difficulties  that  you  are  up  against  in  the 
field;  I  have  been  thru  the  mill  m3'self ;  but  whenever  business 
did  not  come  for  me  in  satisfactory  quantities,  I  always  made 
a  self-analysis,  and  ninety-nine  times  out  of  a  hundred  I 
found  that  I  was  to  blame.  Some  days  I  felt  tired  ;  business 
suffered.  Other  days  I  saw  the  people  and  mechanically  told 
them  my  message ;  still  business  suffered.  Usually  when 
Thursday  came  I  would  awaken  to  the  fact  that  1  needed 
the  business  and  the  money  that  the  business  brouglit  me; 
then  I  would  get  out  and  work  along  the  right  lines — and  I 
always  made  sales. 

You  are  not  differently  constituted  from  any  other  sales- 
man, and  if  you  will  stop  for  a  few  minutes  to  make  a  self- 
anal3'sis,  you  will  come  to  the  conclusion,  just  as  I  used  to, 
that  you  are  really  to  blame.  There  is  some  reason  for  your 
getting  business  one  week  and  falling  down  the  next.  The 
VI— 22 


318  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

prospects  are  practically  the  same.  The  product  you  are 
selling  is  better  as  each  week  follows,  and  it  always  resolves 
itself  into  this :  Concentrated  effort  systematically  put  for- 
ward, plus  enthusiasm,  will  always  bring  results. 

I  am  not  writing  this  letter  in  the  form  of  a  criticism,  but, 
if  there  is  one  suggestion  in  it  that  will  set  you  thinking,  I 
have  done  my  duty  by  you  and  by  the  company.  Get  busy 
for  the  next  eight  days  and  send  in  enough  business  to  make 
February  a  profitable  month  both  to  yourself  and  to  the 
house. 

8.  Paragraphs  used  for  training. — Many  sales 
managers  wish  to  keep  their  men  constantly  in  train- 
ing in  the  principles  of  salesmanship  and  in  the  best 
methods  of  selhng  the  individual  line.  A  salesman 
may  fail  to  return  answer  papers  to  formal  courses  of 
selling  instruction  when  these  are  given ;  he  may  neg- 
lect to  read  a  course  of  instruction  published  in  the 
house  organ ;  but  there  is  not  a  salesman  in  any  organ- 
ization who  will  fail  to  read  his  daily  letter  thru  wnth 
care  and  absorb  any  suggestions  as  to  better  selling 
methods  contained  in  it.  The  special  paragraphs, 
then,  may  frequently  be  devoted  to  suggestions  as  to 
better  selling  methods. 

An  old  and  veiy  able  member  of  a  most  successful 
selling  organization  walked  into  his  sales  manager's 
office  one  daj''  and  said:  "Every  member  of  this  or- 
ganization has  some  thought,  some  idea,  that  would  be 
distinctly  worth  while  to  every  other  member.  Why 
not  tell  each  member  of  the  organization  that  he  will 
have  turned  over  to  him  for  one  day  the  sales 
manager's  chau*,  and  that  the  letter  going  out  of  the 


COOPERATION  WITH  SALESMEN  319 

organization  on  that  day  shall  be  written  and  signed 
by  him  as  sales  manager?"  The  plan  seemed  good 
and  a  number  of  the  older  members  of  the  organiza- 
tion were  appealed  to,  to  start  the  ball  rolling. 
Eventually  every  member  of  the  organization  wrote  a 
letter,  a  message,  to  his  fellow  members.  Tlie  plan  has 
since  proved  to  be  a  big  idea  in  sales  management. 

It  was  found  that  every  single  member  did  have  a 
message  for  his  fellow-salesman.  Many  old  ideas  were 
approached  from  new  angles ;  and  many  entirely  new 
ideas  brought  out.  In  a  great  number  of  instances, 
the  points  made  were  ones  that  could  not  possibly  have 
been  as  effectively  put  across  by  the  sales  manager  him- 
self. The  utmost  latitude  was  allowed  in  the  subject 
matter  of  these  letters.  Many  were  purely  idealistic. 
Others  embodied  a  definite  selling  idea — the  making  of 
a  certain  selling  point,  the  answer  to  a  specific  objec- 
tion or  an  effective  way  of  handling  a  certain  class  of 
prospects.  Others  emphasized  the  dignity  of  the 
salesman's  calling  and  the  standing  of  the  house ;  still 
others,  the  salesman's  obligation  to  give  his  best  efforts 
to  the  house — things  that  it  would  be  difficult  for  the 
sales  manager  himself  to  talk  about  without  seeming 
to  preach;  still  others  discussed  methods  of  handling 
and  developing  territory.  Some  went  into  the  sales- 
men's more  personal  problems  of  saving  money,  invest- 
ing, raising  their  living  standards  and  the  like — thus 
getting  at  what  is,  after  all,  fundamental  in  the  de- 
velopment and  progress  of  all  salesmen.  In  one  case, 
a  salesman  who  had  received  a  strong  letter  of  re- 


320  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

proof  from  the  sales  manager  some  time  previous, 
quoted  parts  of  that  letter  to  his  fellow-salesmen ;  and 
by  so  doing,  made  known  to  them  certain  standards 
by  which  the  sales  manager  was  in  the  habit  of  gaug- 
ing the  performance  of  the  members  of  the  organiza- 
tion. 

This  is  a  plan  which  might  well  be  tried  out  to  good 
advantage  in  any  organization. 

9.  3Iottoes  and  indorsements. — It  is  the  practice  of 
one  very  successful  sales  manager  to  include  with  his 
daily  letter  some  sort  of  inspirational  motto  or  quota- 
tion on  a  card  of  convenient  size.  Another  manager 
incloses  every  day  a  copy  of  some  letter  of  indorse- 
ment of  the  goods  written  by  a  customer. 

10.  House  organs. — The  term  house  organ  as  used 
here  is  not  intended  to  include  publications  put  out 
by  different  houses  for  circulation  among  their  cus- 
tomers, dealers  or  prospects,  but  only  those  more  in- 
timate, personal  and  confidential  publications,  the  sole 
purpose  of  which  is  to  keep  the  salesman — and  pos- 
sibly other  members  of  the  organization — in  close 
touch  with  one  another  and  with  the  house. 

These  house  organs  are  of  two  general  styles:  the 
newspaper  type  and  the  magazine  type.  Some  are 
put  out  in  the  general  form  of  newspapers  and  the 
articles  are  written  in  newspaper  style  with  newsy 
headings  and  sub-heads,  while  others  partake  more  of 
the  natm-e  of  a  magazine  both  in  form  and  contents. 

Some  are  published  weekly  and  others  monthly, 
while  a  few  large  organizations  publish  theirs  daily. 


COOPERATION  WITH  SALESMEN  321 

For  the  majority  of  organizations,  the  weekly  house 
organ  will  be  found  most  practicable  and  most  ef- 
fective. 

11.  Mechanical  make-up  of  house  organ. — In  the 
mechanical  make-up,  a  considerable  difference  pre- 
vails among  concerns.  JNIany  house  organs  are 
printed  more  or  less  elaborately,  a  number  of  them 
carrying  artistic  three-colored  covers  and  being  pro- 
fusely illustrated  with  half-tone  cuts.  Others  are 
prepared  in  the  firm's  office  by  means  of  some  dupli- 
cating device  and  the  occasional  illustrations  run  are 
printed  outside  as  inserts.  For  the  concern  whose 
house  organ  will  have  a  limited  circulation — which 
will  go  to  an  organization  of,  let  us  say,  from  twenty- 
five  to  one  hundred  men — the  latter  is  the  much  less 
costly  method  and  will  be  found  quite  as  effective. 
The  mechanical  make-up  is  after  all  much  less  impor- 
tant than  the  nature  of  the  contents. 

12.  Name  and  contents. — Probably  the  most  im- 
portant thing  to  be  kept  in  mind  in  selecting  a  name 
for  the  house  organ  is  to  choose  one  which  suggests 
not  the  "ginger"  idea  so  much  as  information  and  co- 
operation. 

Altho  much  depends  upon  the  nature  of  the  par- 
ticular business,  the  size  of  the  publication,  the  num- 
ber within  the  organization  and  the  intimacy  and  good 
fellowshij)  existing  among  them,  in  general  tlie  house 
organ  will  contain  the  standings  in  any  sales  contest 
that  may  be  under  way,  contributions  from  the  men 
in  the  field,  personal  notices  concerning  the  members 


322  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

of  the  sales  organization,  important  announcements 
regarding  advertising,  house  policies,  new  contests, 
quota  prizes,  conventions  and  the  like,  articles  on  sell- 
ing and  on  sales  methods,  and  articles  which  are  purely 
inspirational  in  nature. 

The  house  organ  may  be  used  as  a  vehicle  for  a  for- 
mal study  course  in  salesmanship. 

A  series  of  articles  following  the  concern's  product 
right  thru  from  the  raw  material  to  the  finished  article 
and  designed  to  give  the  members  of  the  selling  or- 
ganization a  minute  and  detailed  knowledge  of  their 
goods,  especially  with  a  view  to  their  using  it  in  the 
selling  talk,  should  be  given  a  place.  The  proceed- 
ings of  the  annual  sales  convention  or  speeches  made 
to  the  training  classes  may  be  run  serially.  The  co- 
operative idea  can  be  fostered  by  encouraging  the 
heads  of  other  departments  to  contribute  articles  that 
will  help  the  salesmen  and  that  will  secure  cooperation 
from  them.  It  is  usually  well  to  bind  the  house  and 
field  organizations  together  by  devoting  a  page  or  two 
to  inside  organization  matters,  both  of  a  business  and 
a  social  nature. 

Care  should  be  taken  that  the  contents  of  the  house 
organ  be  not  confined  too  strictly  to  business.  No- 
tices of  the  little  joys  and  sorrows  that  enter  into  the 
home  lives  of  the  different  members  of  the  organiza- 
tion should  be  given  place,  so  that  their  comrades  may 
rejoice  with  them  in  their  happiness,  or  feel  with  them 
in  their  sorrows.  A  little  good-natured  chaffing  on 
their  foibles,  breezy  little  stories  of  humorous  situa- 


COOPERATION  WITH  SALESMEN  323 

tions  in  which  they  have  played  a  part  and  references 
to  such  matters  as  a  fishing  trip,  the  purchase  of  an 
automobile  or  a  new  house,  will  help  the  salesmen  to 
feel  that  they  know  one  another  well,  will  give  them 
something  to  talk  about  when  they  meet  at  conven- 
tion and  do  much  to  create  and  maintain  the  "large 
happy  family"  spirit.  Within  this  scope,  however, 
everything  included  should  be  relevant.  The  house 
organ  built  up  too  liberally  from  other  publications 
with  the  aid  of  the  shears  and  the  paste  pot,  does  little 
to  weld  the  organization.  INIaterial  of  this  sort  should 
be  used  sparingly  and  only  when  it  is  especially  appro- 
priate. Furthermore,  anything  pessimistic  in  nature 
or  carrying  negative  suggestions  of  any  sort  has  no 
place  in  the  house  organ. 

While  the  star  producers  of  the  organization  should 
be  given  due  recognition  in  the  house  organ,  and  while 
playing  them  up  in  the  right  way  will  inspire  the  other 
men,  care  should  be  taken  not  to  over-feature  them, 
nor  to  feature  them  to  the  exclusion  of  the  rank  and 
file.  Every  member  of  the  sales  organization  should 
have  a  place  in  the  house  organ  in  one  way  or  another 
with  equal  frequency.  It  is  more  important  to  make 
the  mediocre  producer  feel  that  he  is  an  integral  part 
of  the  organization  and  so  encourage  him  to  live  up  to 
the  responsibilities  which  this  entails,  than  it  is  to  give 
prominence  to  the  star. 

Neither  is  the  house  organ  the  place  for  preaching 
from  the  company  officials,  nor  for  "talking  down"  of 
any  sort  from  any  source.     The  house  organ  should 


324  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

carry  an  all-one  plane  spirit,  and  all  writing  should 
be  red-blooded,  man-to-man  style.  The  faults  of  the 
sales  organization,  which  it  may  be  desired  to  correct, 
should  seldom,  if  ever,  be  attacked  directl}'.  The 
pertinent  story,  preferably  humorous  or  semi-humor- 
ous, is  the  better  way. 

13.  House  organ  illustrations. — While  illustrations 
run  up  the  cost  of  the  house  organ  slightly,  they  add 
greatly  to  its  interest.  The  sales  manager  will  want 
to  get  out  one  or  more  special  issues  during  the  year 
— the  convention  number,  for  example,  to  be  dis- 
tributed at  the  home  office  when  the  men  come  in  for 
convention — and  these  should  be  profusely  illustrated. 
Sometimes  they  will  carrj^  half-tones  of  each  of  the 
officials  and  department  heads  of  the  inside  organiza- 
tion and  of  each  member  of  the  selling  force,  accom- 
panied by  a  short  biography  or  "grind"  similar  to 
those  found  in  college  annuals. 

In  other  issues,  pictures,  usually  snapshots,  sent  in 
by  the  men  in  the  field  may  be  used  especially  if  they 
feature  the  salesman's  family  or  his  home  surround- 
ings. Pictures  of  representatives  in  foreign  parts  or 
traveling  by  unusual  methods  will  be  interesting.  If 
the  home  organization  holds  an  outing  of  any  sort, 
the  men  in  the  field  will  be  pleased  with  photographs 
showing  the  various  events  and  pleasures  of  the  day. 
Any  additions  to  the  plant  or  office  should  be  visual- 
ized by  pictures  for  the  field  men.  All  of  these  will 
require  the  making  of  half-tone  cuts  and,  if  the  house 
organ  is  printed  in  the  office,  will  necessitate  the  print- 


COOPERATION  WITH  SALESMEN  325 

ing  of  special  pages  outside.     These  pages  will  have 
to  be  of  a  paper  that  will  take  a  half-tone  cut. 

Then  there  are  the  little  thumb-nail  sketches,  illus- 
trating certain  articles,  and  the  black  and  white  car- 
toons, preferably  drawn  by  a  member  of  the  organi- 
zation, of  which  simple  line  cuts  can  be  made.  Every- 
one should  be  encouraged  to  send  in  photographs  and 
to  submit  pen  and  ink  drawings. 

14.  Object  of  the  house  organ. — Some  of  the  ob- 
jects of  the  house  organ  have  been  indicated  in  the 
previous  paragraphs.  In  general,  the  house  organ 
should  keep  the  whole  organization,  both  outside  and 
inside,  bound  closely  together,  should  keep  the  sales- 
men informed  as  to  one  another,  should  keep  them 
posted  as  to  house  news,  as  to  their  goods  and  as  to 
trade  possibilities,  should  stimulate  them  to  continued 
loyalty  and  enthusiasm,  and,  with  all  this,  should  strike 
a  sincere  note  of  helpfulness  and  cooperation. 

15.  Securing  contributions  to  the  house  organ. — 
To  secure  contributions  from  the  members  of  the  in- 
side organization  will  usually  be  a  simple  matter. 
The  sales  manager  decides  what  sort  of  articles  he 
wants,  picks  those  whom  he  desires  to  write  them,  and 
keeps  diplomatically  after  the  proposed  authors  until 
he  secures  their  contributions.  Requests  from  other 
department  heads  that  the  sales  manager  give  his  men 
certain  instructions  regarding  cooperation  with  these 
departments  give  an  opportunity  to  suggest  that  these 
department  heads  write  an  article  on  the  subject  for 
the  house  organ.     By  continued  insistence  upon  a 


326  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

fraternizing  tone  in  such  articles  the  sales  manager 
will  be  able  to  avoid  any  critical  or  dictatorial  attitude 
that  might  antagonize  the  men  in  the  field. 

The  absence  of  contributions  from  the  salesmen 
themselves  is  noticeable  in  most  house  organs.  In  the 
measure  that  this  is  so,  the  effectiveness  of  the  house 
organ  will  be  impaired.  The  absence  of  salesmen's 
contributions  is  too  often  due  to  the  fact  that  the  editor 
expects  long,  special  articles  from  the  men  and  that 
when  he  is  fortunate  enough  to  get  them,  he  applies 
the  editorial  blue  pencil  so  extensively  as  to  irritate 
and  discourage  the  writers. 

16.  Getting  salesmen  to  contribute. — A  method  of 
securing  salesmen's  articles  frequently  used  is  to  offer 
prizes.  The  subject  on  which  the  articles  submitted 
are  to  be  written  may  be  named  by  the  editor,  or  the 
salesmen  may  be  left  to  select  their  own  subjects. 
Some  house  organ  editors,  recognizing  that  most  sales- 
men are  averse  to  writing  formal  articles,  require  from 
them  only  rough  outlines  of  their  ideas.  The  editor 
then  fills  in  the  outline,  writes  the  article  in  his  own 
words  and  gives  the  salesman  credit  for  it. 

By  far  the  best  way  to  secure  house  organ  contribu- 
tions from  salesmen  is  to  cull  them  from  the  letters 
the  men  write  to  the  sales  manager.  Under  the  daily 
letter  system  described,  the  salesman  will  be  encour- 
aged to  write  long,  interesting  and  chummy  letters. 
Enthuiastic  portions  of  these,  sometimes  including 
references  to  orders  sent  in  or  descriptions  of  how 
orders  were  taken,  may  be  selected  and  run  in  the 


COOPERATION  WITH  SALESMEN  327 

house  organ  under  special  heads  written  for  each  one 
individually,  or  under  such  a  general  head  as  "from 

THE  MEN  ox  THE  FIRING  LINE." 

When  a  man  has  put  over  an  especially  good  deal, 
a  request  from  the  sales  manager  to  write  a  letter 
telling  how  it  was  done  will  bring  an  enthuiastic,  un- 
studied story  that  will  make  fine  reading  in  the  house 
organ.  That  the  salesman  suspects  it  will  be  used  in 
the  house  organ  will  make  little  difference.  The  fact 
that  he  is  telling  his  story  in  a  letter  addressed  to  the 
sales  manager  makes  it  easy  for  him.  If  a  salesman 
shows  unusual  success  with  a  particular  class  of  pros- 
pects, he  should  be  requested  to  write  the  sales  man- 
ager a  description  of  the  methods  he  uses  in  getting 
that  class  of  business.  Unless  there  is  some  good  rea- 
son to  the  contrary,  the  salesman's  name  should  al- 
ways be  signed  to  the  contributions  thus  secured. 

17.  The  house  organ  editor. — The  editor  of  the 
house  organ  and  the  sales  manager  have  been  spoken 
of  here  as  if  they  were  two  different  persons.  How- 
ever, the  sales  manager  may  edit  the  house  organ. 
By  so  doing  he  can  be  sure  that  the  right  articles  find 
their  way  to  its  pages.  Articles  which  may  be  all 
right  from  other  points  of  view  are  not  always  ad- 
vantageous from  a  sales  standpoint.  An  article,  the 
subject  matter  of  which  may  be  acceptable,  may  be 
written  in  a  tone  that  would  antagonize  the  whole 
sales  force.  Many  house  organs  are  filled  with  ir- 
relevant material  because  the  editors,  lacking  the  sales 
point  of  view,  are  unable  to  fill  their  pages  with  proper 


328  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

material.  When  the  sales  manager  edits  the  house 
organ  the  contents  will  be  right  from  a  selling  stand- 
point and  helpful  to  the  men  in  the  field. 

REVIEW 

What  is  the  biggest  thing  in  sales  management? 

Discuss  the  following  as  a  means  to  getting  the  best  out  of 
the  men  in  the  field:  sales  manager's  visits  to  men;  his  daily 
letters  to  them;  training  methods;  house  organ. 

Discus  in  detail  the  sales  manager's  letters  to  his  men. 

Discuss  the  house  organ.  Cover  the  following  points:  form; 
mechanical  make-up;  contents;  editor;  contributions;  frequency 
of  publication;  tone. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

SALES  CONTESTS 

1.  Contests. — The  love  of  a  game  is  inbred  in  all  of 
us,  and  in  a  closely  knit,  harmonious  selling  organiza- 
tion anything  that  makes  a  game  out  of  business  and 
enables  its  members  to  indulge  in  friendly  rivalry  is 
welcome.  The  sales  contest  does  this,  and  at  the  same 
time  sets  a  standard  for  the  salesman  to  attain,  and 
thus  promotes  his  selling  efficiency. 

Contests  may  be  announced  at  the  opening  of  a 
year,  at  the  annual  convention  for  example,  and  may 
run  thruout  the  entire  year.  Others  may  be  for 
monthly  or  quarterly  periods  and  may  be  announced 
in  the  house  organ.  A  contest  extending  over  the 
months  of  June,  July  and  August  may  be  planned 
to  keep  the  members  of  the  selling  organization  work- 
ing at  maximum  efficiency  during  these  ordinarily  off 
months.  One  big  concern  doing  a  national  business 
fought  off  "dull  times"  talk  in  the  early  part  of  1914 
by  announcing  that  the  board  of  directors  had  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  time  was  ripe  for  rapid  expan- 
sion of  the  company's  business,  and  by  inaugurating 
a  series  of  contests  for  prizes  to  be  awarded  in  ac- 
cordance with  percentages  of  increase  over  corre- 
sponding months  of  previous  years. 

329 


330  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

It  will  be  found  that  the  annual  contest  is  good  for 
a  long  pull  and  may  be  likened  to  a  distance  foot  race. 
The  shorter  term  contests  or  quota  races  will  corre- 
spond to  the  sprints.  They  will  inspire  bursts  of 
speed,  as  do  the  special  short  distance  prizes  offered 
to  the  riders  in  a  six-day  bicycle  race. 

2.  Giving  all  a  chance  to  win. — It  is  a  fundamental 
principle  of  sales  contest  planning,  that  each  man  in 
the  organization  be  given  more  than  a  fighting  chance 
to  win.  The  rules  should  be  such  that  every  salesman 
in  the  organization,  irrespective  of  the  volume  of  his 
production,  will  start  out  optimistic  in  regard  to 
coming  out  at  the  top.  A  contest  under  whose  rules 
only  a  few  top-notch  producers  in  the  organization 
can  compete  attracts  little  attention  and  creates  no 
enthusiasm  among  the  rank  and  file  of  the  organiza- 
tion. Such  a  contest  will  be  no  incentive  to  them  to 
increase  their  sales. 

Calculating  standing  in  the  contest  according  to 
the  percentage  of  increase  over  a  previous  period  is  a 
method  which  gives  every  salesman  a  chance  to  win. 
It  has  the  disadvantage,  however,  of  allowing  the 
poorest  producer  of  a  previous  period  the  best  chance 
of  winning.  This  in  turn  may  be  guarded  against  to 
some  degree  by  establishing  a  minimum  upon  which 
increases  will  be  calculated.  In  order  that  the  top- 
notch  producers  of  a  previous  period  may  have  an  op- 
portunity of  winning  a  prize  also,  there  should  be  one 
or  two  prizes  for  total  sales  in  addition  to  the  prizes 
based  on  increases. 


SALES  CONTESTS  331 

The  principle  here  is  the  same  as  that  which  governs 
handicapping  in  athletic  events.  Just  as  a  crack  run- 
ner, unless  handicapped,  would  win  easily  without 
putting  forth  his  best  efforts,  so  the  big  producer  in  a 
selling  organization,  if  he  is  not  handicapped,  will 
carry  off  the  honors  without  a  struggle.  The  men 
may  be  handicapped  by  assigning  quotas,  and  deter- 
mining standing  in  the  contest  by  the  percentage  of 
quota  which  has  been  attained.  It  will  thus  be  pos- 
sible for  salesmen  whose  respective  volumes  of  busi- 
ness vary  widely  to  have  the  same  percentages  of 
quota  and  consequently  identical  standings  in  the  con- 
test. The  contest  standing  may  be  figured  on  a  point 
basis.  In  this  case  a  certain  amount  in  sales  consti- 
tutes one  point,  and  this  amount  may  vary  for  differ- 
ent men  or  different  territories.  Consistent  effort  is 
sometimes  recognized  by  rewarding  those  who  take 
orders  on  the  largest  number  of  days,  irrespective  of 
the  total  of  orders  taken. 

3.  Making  quality  of  business  count. — The  quality 
as  well  as  the  quantity  of  business  taken  should  enter 
into  the  figuring  of  standings  in  the  contest.  Differ- 
ent totals  of  sales  of  different  articles  may  be  made  to 
represent  a  point  if  the  contest  is  figured  on  a  point 
basis.  One  point  may  be  allowed  for  every  five  dol- 
lars in  sales  of  an  article  which  shows  the  larger  profit, 
or  which  it  is  desired  to  push,  while  a  sale  of  ten  dollars 
or  even  fifteen  dollars  will  be  necessary  to  earn  a  point 
in  another  class  of  goods.  Articles  may  be  weighted 
by  assigning  them  various  numbers  indicating  their 


332  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

importance.  Then  the  points  allowed  on  each  class 
of  goods  will  be  multiplied  by  the  weight  numbers, 
the  results  added,  and  the  total  divided  by  the  total 
of  the  weight  numbers. 

Separate  points  may  be  allowed  for  the  terms  se- 
cured on  orders.  For  example,  fifteen  additional 
points  might  be  allowed  for  every  $100  in  business 
taken  for  cash  in  ten  days,  ten  points  for  every  $100 
in  business  due  in  thirty  days,  and  five  points  for  every 
$100  due  in  sixty  days.  If  the  business  is  such  that 
collections  are  made  with  the  order,  an  additional 
tenth  of  a  point  may  be  allowed  for  each  dollar  col- 
lected and  sent  in  with  the  order.  The  methods  of 
figuring  contest  standings  so  that  every  member  of 
the  organization  will  have  an  equal  chance,  and  so 
that  quality  as  well  as  quantity  of  business  will  be 
taken  into  consideration,  will  vary  in  different  lines. 

4.  Prizes. — Salesmen  will  generally  respond  much 
more  readily  and  much  more  enthusiastically  to  an 
appeal  to  their  pride  and  their  desire  to  win  a  place  of 
honor  than  they  will  to  an  appeal  to  their  pocketbooks. 
They  will  strive  hard  for  a  prize  the  value  of  which 
put  up  in  money  would  leave  them  unmoved.  As  a 
general  rule,  unless  money  prizes  are  valuable  enough 
to  appeal  sufficiently  to  a  salesman  on  a  strictly  cash 
basis,  contest  prizes  should  not  be  money  and  should 
preferably  be  of  a  nature  to  allow  of  a  suitable  in- 
scription indicating  that  they  are  prizes.  Success- 
ful contests  have  been  waged  for  mere  pieces  of  paper, 
cloth  pennants,  inexpensive  buttons,  the  honor  of  see- 


SALES  CONTESTS  333 

ing  one's  picture  in  the  house  organ,  or  for  a  cup  or 
a  banner  to  be  displayed  in  the  district  office  or  in  the 
salesman's  home. 

Furthermore,  the  salesman  will  respond  to  an  ap- 
peal to  help  others  quite  as  readily  as  he  will  to  an 
appeal  to  increase  his  own  earnings  or  win  a  prize 
for  himself.  Some  concerns,  for  example,  set  aside 
different  months  in  the  year  during  which  the  busi- 
ness taken  will  be  considered  a  tribute  to  different  ex- 
ecutives of  the  company.  Salesmen  will  forge  ahead 
and  pile  up  a  big  business  for  a  well-liked  man  altho 
they  get  nothing  from  it  themselves  other  than  the 
satisfaction  of.  having  contributed  to  a  big  month  in 
his  honor.  An  appeal  to  make  a  record  month  dur- 
ing the  absence  of  the  sales  manager  so  as  to  surprise 
him  on  his  return,  if  not  overdone,  will  bring  a  ready 
response.  The  board  of  directors  of  one  large  con- 
cern set  the  business  they  expected  to  secure  in  a 
certain  year  as  the  sales  manager's  quota  and  offered 
to  present  him  with  an  automobile  if  his  organization 
were  successful  in  producing  that  amount.  In  this 
contest,  the  score-makers  got  nothing  but  the  glory 
of  having  contributed  a  certain  number  of  parts  to- 
ward the  sales  manager's  automobile. 

5.  Plans  of  contests, — There  is  such  a  wide  va- 
riety of  contests  that  no  comprehensive  list  could  be 
given  here.  A  few  that  have  been  successful  and  that 
have  had  a  strong  imaginative  appeal  may  be  men- 
tioned, however. 

6.  One  hundred  point  club. — One  large  organiza- 

VI— 23 


334)  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

tion  has  what  is  known  as  a  "One  hundred  point 
club."  Only  those  who  average  one  hundred  points 
per  month  in  sales  for  an  entire  year  are  eligible  to 
membership  the  following  year.  In  this  case,  one 
point  represents  twenty-five  dollars  in  sales.  The 
first  man  to  reach  twelve  hundred  points  is  president 
of  the  club  for  the  following  year,  the  second  man 
vice-president,  and  so  on.  In  addition  to  the  honor 
which  membership  confers,  all  members  of  the  club  are 
brought  to  headquarters  for  a  short  sojourn.  The 
membership  of  the  club  is,  of  course,  widely  advertised 
thru  the  house  organ  and  in  other  ways. 

7.  The  baseball  idea. — Advantage  may  be  taken 
of  timely  events  in  the  staging  of  the  contest.  Much 
ingenuity  has  been  shown  in  the  planning  of  baseball 
contests  during  the  summer  by  pitting  district  offices 
of  equal  strength  from  different  sections  of  the  coun- 
try against  one  another ;  and  where  the  organization  is 
large  enough  leagues  have  even  been  formed.  In 
one  case,  a  bogie  team  was  pitted  against  the  players 
of  the  organization.  Orders  according  to  their  size 
are  made  to  represent  one-base  hits,  two-baggers  and 
home  runs. 

In  one  baseball  contest  where  conditions  made  it 
necessary  to  include  a  different  number  of  men  in  each 
team,  the  team  quotas  were  figured  by  assigning  in- 
dividual quotas  to  each  team  member,  and  using  the 
total  as  team  quotas.  Then  the  "standing  of  the 
clubs"  was  figured  by  determining  the  percentage  of 
the  quota  actually  secured  at  any  given  date  and  run- 


SALES  CONTESTS  335 

ning  that  as  the  team's  "percentage."  The  only  prize 
in  this  baseball  contest  was  a  pennant  to  be  awarded 
the  team  having  the  highest  percentage  and  to  be  pre- 
sented to  that  team  at  the  next  annual  convention. 
"E"tting  averages"  of  individual  team  members  were 
to  be  shown. 

In  announcing  the  plans  for  this  "league"  nothing 
was  said  about  team  captains.  It  was  not  long,  how- 
ever, before  several  men  on  one  team  conceived  the 
idea  of  honoring  one  of  their  number  with  the  cap- 
taincy. Other  teams  quickly  followed  suit  without 
suggestions  from  the  home  office.  Naturally  the  cap- 
tain, once  elected,  was  looked  to  by  the  home  office 
to  show  results  with  his  team.  The  team  members, 
having  elected  the  captain,  felt  themselves  obliged  to 
answer  his  requests  for  extra  efforts.  Furthermore, 
each  captain  was  encouraged  by  the  home  office  to  get 
after  the  weaker  members  of  his  team  with  the  appeal 
that  they  were  doing  an  injustice  to  their  hard- 
working team  mates  by  holding  the  team  down  in  the 
percentage  column.  A  man  who  might  think  it  jus- 
tifiable to  slow  down  in  hot  weather  so  far  as  the  house 
was  concerned,  would  in  all  likelihood  feel  an  obliga- 
tion to  his  team  mates  in  a  contest  of  this  kind,  and 
would  respond  to  an  appeal  which  came  not  from 
the  house,  but  from  his  team  mates  and  team  cap- 
tain. 

In  another  baseball  contest,  the  teams  composed  of 
the  sales  force  were  considered  as  playing  games  the 
one  against  the  other,  a  regular  schedule  being  made 


336  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

out  beforehand  and  each  game  lasting  nine  days,  each 
day  representing  an  inning.  The  score  for  each  in- 
ning of  the  four  games  always  in  progress  was  given 
by  innings  each  day  by  special  bulletin.  Standings 
of  the  teams  were  then  figured  by  the  regular  "games 
won  and  lost"  method. 

While  comparisons  are  sometimes  far-fetched,  these 
baseball  contests  are  generally  successful. 

8.  Other  exam^ples  of  the  athletic  idea. — The  foot- 
ball season  may  be  taken  advantage  of  in  the  same 
way.  Bowling  clubs  may  be  organized.  One  annual 
contest  is  known  as  the  yearly  marathon,  and  the 
money  prizes  are  presented  to  the  winners  at  the  an- 
nual convention  in  individual  miniature  trophy  cups. 
One  successful  short-term  contest  consisterl  of  a 
handicap  automobile  race,  each  twenty-five-dollar  sale 
on  credit  advancing  the  salesman's  car  one  yard,  and 
each  cash  sale  of  the  same  amount  counting  for  one 
and  one-half  yards,  handicaps  up  to  one  thousand 
yards  based  on  past  performances  being  given.  Each 
week  that  any  contestant  fell  below  a  certain  average, 
he  was  credited  with  having  "tire  trouble"  or  "engine 
trouble"  and  set  back,  the  lost  ground  being  made  up, 
perhaps,  by  a  higher  average  week  later  on.  Another 
concern,  selhng  a  single  product  in  three  sizes  at  fifty, 
seventy-five  and  one  hundred  dollars,  organized  a 
number  of  evenly  matched  rifle  teams  among  its  sales- 
men. Each  one-hundred-dollar  sale  registered  a 
bull's-eye,  each  seventy-five-dollar  sale  a  first-circle 
shot,  and  each  fifty-dollar  sale  a  second-circle  shot. 


SALES  CONTESTS  337 

Bull's-eyes  counted  five  points  each,  first-circle  shots 
three  points,  and  second-circle  one  point  each. 

9.  Electing  a  president. — One  concern  took  ad- 
vantage of  current  interest  by  putting  on  a  contest 
for  the  election  of  a  president  during  a  presidential 
campaign.  The  simple  plan  was  adopted  of  allow- 
ing each  salesman  to  register  one  vote  for  his  favorite 
candidate  for  each  twenty-five  dollars'  worth  of  busi- 
ness secured.  The  contest  closed  on  the  last  day  of 
October,  thereby  allowing  the  organization  to  express 
its  choice  for  president  a  week  before  the  country  at 
large  had  an  opportunity  to  do  so.  In  a  sales  or- 
ganization of  women,  each  $10  in  sales  was  allowed 
to  register  a  vote  for  or  against  suffrage. 

10.  An  annual  contest. — A  large  New  York  or- 
ganization, while  it  may  have  small  contests  running 
for  short  periods  during  the  year,  has  one  contest  that 
runs  throughout  the  entire  year.  Standings  are  fig- 
ured on  a  point  basis,  which  takes  both  quantity  and 
quality  of  business  into  consideration.  The  first  prize 
for  the  greatest  number  of  points  is  a  watch  or  other 
article,  suitably  inscribed,  costing  not  less  than  $300. 
The  second  prize  for  the  second  largest  number  of 
points  is  some  article  costing  not  less  than  $150.  In 
addition,  there  are  three  prizes  for  individual  increase 
of  business  over  the  previous  year ;  the  first  to  cost  not 
less  than  $150,  the  second  not  less  than  $100  and  the 
third  not  less  than  $50.  A  minimum  of  1,000  points  is 
set  as  the  basis  on  which  increases  must  be  figured, 
both  for  those  who  made  less  than  1,000  points  during 


338  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

the  previous  year  and  for  those  who  are  new  in  the 
organization.  While  the  prizes  for  the  greatest  num- 
ber of  points  have  been  won  by  the  same  three  or  four 
men  in  the  four  years  that  the  contest  has  been  run- 
ning, the  increase  prizes  have  gone  to  different  men 
each  year. 

There  is  a  thousand  point  club  in  connection  with 
this  contest,  the  first  man  to  secure  a  thousand  points 
in  any  year  being  the  president,  the  second  the  vice- 
president,  and  so  on.  All  salesmen  securing  one 
thousand  points  or  more  during  the  calendar  year  are 
club  members.  The  names  of  these  "thousand 
pointers"  are  each  year  placed  on  a  suitably  inscribed 
bronze  tablet.  The  concern,  a  rapidly  growing  one, 
does  not  as  yet  occupy  its  own  building  but  expects  to 
in  the  near  future;  and  at  that  time,  it  is  planned  to 
line  the  marble  halls  of  the  building  with  these  bronze 
tablets. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  year  there  begins  to  appear 
in  the  house  organ  what  is  known  as  the  thousand 
point  page,  the  names  of  those  who  have  passed  the 
thousand  point  mark  being  carried  each  week  in  the 
order  in  which  they  achieve  this  distinction  and  the 
names  of  the  new  men  achieving  the  goal  being  added 
to  the  ever-lengthening  list. 

11.  Contests  between  cities. — It  may  be  desired  to 
pit  part  of  the  organization  against  another  part  to 
the  exclusion  of  other  organization  members.  For 
example,  a  concern  with  salesmen  all  over  the  coun- 
try but  with  only  two  city  organizations,  one  in  New 


SALES  CONTESTS  339 

York  and  one  in  Chicago,  inaugurated  what  was  called 
a  "big  cities"  contest.  Two  sets  of  theater  tickets,  the 
tickets  desired  to  be  chosen  by  the  winners,  were  of- 
fered as  prizes.  It  became  the  object  of  each  of  the 
city  organizations  to  take  both  sets  of  tickets  in  the 
same  month  and,  as  a  result,  rivalry  became  keen. 
Standings  were  shown  in  each  of  the  offices  by  listing 
the  names  of  the  contestants  in  the  order  of  their 
standing,  New  York  men  in  red  and  Chicago  men  in 
black. 

12.  Methods  of  showing  standings. — The  incentive 
to  enter  into  a  contest  depends  in  some  degree  upon 
the  way  in  which  the  standings  are  announced  and, 
altho  the  method  employed  varies  widely,  a  few  sug- 
gestions will  be  given  here. 

The  standings  in  the  Marathon  race  were  shown, 
of  course,  by  runners  on  a  track,  just  as  the  standings 
in  the  automobile  handicap  race  were  shown  by  auto- 
mobiles. In  both  cases  the  photographed  faces  of 
the  individual  contestants  can  be  inserted  in  the  drawn 
figures. 

In  the  "big  cities"  contest  just  described,  records 
were  posted  each  week  in  each  of  the  offices,  showing 
the  total  of  last  year's  business  for  that  district,  the 
total  of  the  last  month's  business,  the  total  of  the  last 
week's  business  and  the  totals  for  corresponding  pe- 
riods of  the  previous  year.  This  furnished  a  contin- 
ual incentive  to  exceed  the  last  year's  figures  at  all 
points. 

One  or  two  of  the  concerns  running  baseball  and 


340  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

football  contests  even  went  so  far  as  to  get  out  special 
pink  sporting  extras  of  the  house  organ  to  announce 
the  standings.  In  the  case  of  the  sales  manager's 
automobile,  the  usual  number  of  parts  in  an  automo- 
bile was  divided  into  the  business  that  would  be  nec- 
essary to  secure  it  and  the  quotient  was  taken  as  the 
unit  of  sales  that  would  provide  one  part.  Then, 
weekly  announcements  of  the  number  of  parts  pro- 
vided b}^  each  of  the  individual  men  were  made  and 
an  automobile  gradually  being  assembled  was  pic- 
tured. 

One  concern  pictures  each  month  in  the  house  organ 
the  leading  salesman  at  the  top  of  a  ladder.  Another 
house  has  both  in  its  home  office  and  in  its  house  organ 
a  dial  with  three  hands,  one  pointing  to  the  last  year's 
sales  record,  the  second  to  the  mark  set  for  the  current 
year,  and  the  third  showing  the  progress  of  the  cur- 
rent year's  sales.  Balloons  marked  with  the  con- 
testants' names  and  with  the  number  of  points  secured 
may  be  shown  rising  each  week.  A  pictured  ther- 
mometer is  often  used.  One  organization  which  runs 
contests  in  its  various  district  offices  has  in  each  office 
a  large  board  on  which  are  drawn  a  number  of  ther- 
mometers and  at  the  base  of  each  one  where  the  mer- 
cury would  ordinarily  be  is  a  glass  globe  of  red  paint. 
Each  individual  salesman's  standing  is  shown  by  ex- 
tending a  red  line  up  the  thermometer. 

In  the  conduct  of  any  of  these  contests,  it  is  a  ques- 
tion whether  the  names  of  the  individual  salesmen 
should  be  divulged.     In  a  number  of  cases  the  names 


SALES  CONTESTS  341 

are  withheld  and  the  standings  shown  by  numbers 
known  only  to  the  sales  manager  and  to  the  indi- 
vidual salesman  bearing  them.  Fanciful  names  may 
also  be  used  to  designate  members,  the  real  names 
represented  being  kept  secret  in  the  sales  office.  The 
idea  of  this  secrecy  is  to  save  those  in  the  low  places 
from  discouraging  humiliation.  Other  concerns  pub- 
lish the  names  of  the  contestants  on  the  ground  that 
this  furnishes  a  strong  incentive  to  strive  for  a  big 
change  in  standing  between  publications. 

13.  Quotas. — Quotas  are  of  two  kinds:  First,  the 
minimum  amount  of  business  that  will  be  expected 
from  a  certain  territory;  and  second,  the  volume  of 
business  set  by  the  sales  manager  for  each  individual 
salesman,  which  will  entitle  the  salesman  to  the  dis- 
tinction and  honor  of  having  attained  or  beaten  his 
quota  for  a  certain  period  and  which  will  entitle  him 
to  a  prize  if  one  has  been  offered.  It  is  with  the  lat- 
ter class  that  we  are  concerned  here.  Competing  for 
prizes  under  the  quota  plan  differs  from  the  contests 
previously  described  in  that  each  man  competes,  not 
against  his  brother  salesmen,  but  against  himself  and 
his  quota.  The  contest,  no  matter  how  carefully 
planned,  will  be  discouraging  to  some  in  the  organiza- 
tion who  will  decide  at  the  outset  that  they  liave  no 
chance  to  win  the  prizes.  Providing  a  salesman's 
quota  is  properly  determined,  it  is  a  poor  man  indeed 
who  will  become  discouraged  and  fail  to  make  an  ef- 
fort to  attain  it. 

14.  Method  of  determining  quotas. — The  setting  of 


342  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

the  quota  is  necessarily  more  or  less  arbitrary.  The 
sales  manager  will  consider  past  results  in  the  sales- 
man's territory,  present  local  conditions  that  might 
affect  sales,  and  any  selling  and  advertising  plan  that 
may  have  a  bearing  on  the  business  to  be  expected 
during  the  quota  period;  but  more  particularly,  he 
will  consider  the  past  performances  of  the  individual 
salesman  and  this  will  have  the  greatest  weight  in  de- 
termining the  quota.  Special  care  should  be  taken 
not  to  place  the  quota  too  high.  It  is  much  less  se- 
rious to  set  it  too  low.  It  may  be  set  down  as  a 
fundamental  principle  in  handling  salesmen  that  a 
quota  should  never  be  given  which  it  is  impossible  or 
even  difficult  for  them  to  reach.  The  quota  set  should 
be  such  that  with  good,  consistent  work,  it  will  be 
easy  of  attainment.  A  quota  that  the  salesman  is 
able  to  beat,  and  does  beat  strengthens  him,  gives  him 
confidence  and  puts  him  in  a  position  to  assume  a  lit- 
tle larger  quota  the  following  month.  A  quota  that 
is  beyond  the  salesman's  reach,  on  the  other  hand, 
discourages  him  and  tends  to  confirm  in  him  the  habit 
of  failure.  Some  sales  managers  will  allow  each  sales- 
man to  set  his  own  quota  and  will  then  cut  it  down, 
if  they  think  he  has  placed  it  too  high. 

15.  Eoca7nples  of  quota  prizes. — Quota  prizes  may 
be  offered  for  periods  of  a  month  or  longer.  Some 
firms  make  it  a  point  to  set  quotas  and  offer  prizes 
each  month;  others,  while  they  may  set  quotas  each 
month,  offer  prizes  only  occasionally.  Still  more 
keep  the  quota  prize  a  novelty  by  setting  quotas  and 


SALES  CONTESTS  343 

offering  prizes  intermittently.  In  order  to  keep  up 
the  July  sales  a  sales  manager  offered  as  a  prize  to 
each  member  of  the  organization  who  attained  a 
quota,  a  handsome,  perfectly  marked  snakewood  cane. 
While  the  stick  itself  was  valuable,  the  sales  manager 
laid  particular  stress  on  a  mental  picture  of  the  stick 
winners  marching  down  Broadway  in  a  body  when 
they  came  to  New  York  for  the  annual  convention  in 
December.  Frequent  references  were  made  during 
the  month  to  the  "snakewood  brigade."  What  sales- 
man would  be  unconcerned  about  being  left  out  of 
such  a  triumphant  company? 

For  attaining  their  quotas  for  the  four  months  im- 
mediately preceding  their  convention,  another  house 
offered  each  of  its  salesmen  a  genuine  walrus  traveling 
bag  adorned  with  his  initials  in  gold.  The  sales  man- 
ager announced  that  he  wanted  to  make  this  quota 
contest  unique  in  that  he  wanted  to  have  the  pleasure 
of  presenting  every  single  man  in  the  organization 
with  a  walrus  bag  in  the  convention  hall  and,  with  that 
end  in  view,  had  set  the  quotas  particularly  low. 
With  few  exceptions  the  salesmen  won  their  bags 
and,  as  evidence  that  the  quotas  were  really  set  low, 
several  of  them  attained  the  required  amount  of  busi- 
ness in  little  more  than  half  the  time.  To  keep  the 
interest  of  these  men  alive,  new  quotas  were  set  on  the 
attainment  of  which  they  were  presented  with  toilet 
sets  to  go  into  the  bags.  A  few  months  after  the  con- 
vention, new  quotas  were  set  and  a  folding  uml)rella 
that  could  be  carried  in  the  walrus  bag  was  offered. 


344  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

Another  house,  for  the  attainment  of  a  quota  set 
for  the  months  of  June,  July  and  August,  offered  as 
a  prize  a  folding  typewriter  which  the  salesman  could 
carry  with  him  in  his  travels  and  which  would  save 
him  a  great  deal  of  trouble  in  making  out  reports  and 
sending  the  necessary  correspondence. 

To  prevent  any  tendency  toward  a  slow  start  after 
an  annual  convention,  another  sales  manager  set 
quotas  for  the  month  of  January  and  offered  a  gold 
penknife  as  a  prize.  After  the  convention,  a  class 
of  a  dozen  men  were  trained  and  started  out  in  their 
territories  on  January  15th.  To  insure  an  early  start 
for  these  men  the  sales  manager  allowed  them  to  com- 
pete for  the  gold  knives  and  gave  them  nominal 
quotas.  It  will  be  readily  appreciated  that  the  pride 
of  these  men  in  winning  a  quota  prize  in  their  first 
half  month's  work  made  them  better  salesmen. 

All  the  quota  prizes  previously  referred  to  were 
suitably  inscribed.  On  the  umbrella  and  cane,  the 
inscription  was  engraved  on  the  silver  mounting.  In 
the  case  of  the  typewriter,  a  special  plate  was  pro- 
vided. This  is  a  point  that  may  well  be  borne  in  mind 
in  connection  with  quota  prizes.  The  pride  of  the 
salesman  in  possessing  and  being  able  to  show  the 
various  quota  prizes  of  his  house  is  a  strong  incentive 
to  him  to  strive  for  them. 

REVIEW 

When  is  a  sales  contest  effective  and  what  are  the  principles 
to  be  observed  in  planning  one  ?  Give  illustrations  of  successful 
contest  methods. 


SALES  CONTESTS  345 

Plan  one  for  your  own  salesmen. 

Discuss  the  advantages  and  the  disadvantages  of  short-term 
and  long-term  contests. 

Describe  some  effective  methods  of  showing  contest  standings. 

What  is  your  idea  as  to  the  advisability  of  making  known 
the  names  of  the  men  near  the  bottom  of  the  list.^ 


CHAPTER  IX 

SALES  CONVENTIONS 

1.  Conventions. — Annual  sales  conventions  are 
widely  used  by  selling  organizations  whose  members 
work  in  widely  separated  territories  and  do  not  come 
into  frequent  contact  with  one  another  or  with  the 
sales  manager.  Where  possible,  the  entire  organiza- 
tion is  called  together  for  a  three  or  four  days'  con- 
ference either  at  the  factory,  the  home  office  or  at  some 
centrally  located  point.  The  factory  or  office  is 
preferable.  It  is  one  of  the  penalties  of  growth  that 
eventually  the  selling  organization  may  become  so 
large  that  it  is  impossible  to  get  together  in  one  place 
or,  in  fact,  to  have  all  its  members  attend  any  con- 
vention. 

Some  concerns  hold  a  convention  of  their  eastern 
representatives  at  New  York  and,  at  its  close,  the 
principal  officers  of  the  company  travel  to  Chicago 
and  meet  the  western  organization.  Larger  compa- 
nies have  several  of  their  officers  hold  conventions  in 
various  centrally  located  cities,  the  salesmen,  sales 
agents  and  district  managers  from  the  surrounding 
territory  being  called  in.  The  National  Cash  Regis- 
ter Company  holds  a  number  of  such  conventions, 
some  of  which  are  presided  over  by  the  president  and 
others  by  the  sales  manager.     Considerable  equip- 

346 


SALES  CONVENTIONS  347 

ment  in  the  way  of  charts  and  bulletin  boards  is 
carried.  The  Burroughs  Adding  Machine  Company 
applies  the  convention  idea  by  calling  its  district  man- 
agers and  salesmen  into  Detroit  in  groups  of  between 
twenty-five  and  fifty. 

The  practice  in  regard  to  bearing  the  expense  of 
convention  varies.  A  great  many  concerns  pay  all 
expenses  including  railroad  fares  and  hotel  bills. 
Others  pay  railroad  fares  but  expect  the  men  to  de- 
fray their  own  hotel  expense.  Others  make  the  com- 
ing of  the  salesmen  to  the  convention  at  the  company's 
expense  dependent  upon  the  volume  of  the  salesman's 
business. 

2.  Preparations  for  the  convention. — A  convention 
represents  a  considerable  expenditure  of  money.  If 
it  is  to  be  an  investment  and  not  an  expense,  every- 
thing must  be  done  to  make  the  convention  accom- 
plish the  purpose  for  which  it  is  intended.  It  should 
be  played  up  beforehand  in  the  house  organ  and  in 
the  daily  letters  to  the  men.  For  months  before,  the 
salesman  should  be  reminded  at  intervals  that  the  time 
for  the  annual  convention  is  drawing  near  and  that 
they  will  want  to  have  a  creditable  record  to  boast  of 
when  they  come  in.  This  should  secure  a  spurt  from 
every  man  in  the  organization  for  the  grand  wind-up 
of  the  year's  business.  The  men  in  the  field^may  be 
asked  for  suggestions  as  to  topics  to  be  discussed  dur- 
ing the  convention  and  they  should  be  told  something 
of  what  will  be  expected  of  them  in  the  way  of  par- 
ticipation. 


348  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

Competent  committees  should  be  appointed  to  take 
care  of  the  several  phases  of  the  convention.  The 
usual  committees  will  be  those  on  the  convention  hall, 
on  entertainment,  on  hotel  and  food  and  on  the  pro- 
gram. The  chairman  of  each  of  these  committees 
should  be  an  executive  officer. 

3.  The  program. — The  program  should  be  ar- 
ranged to  bring  up  in  the  limited  time  at  the  disposal 
of  the  convention,  all  the  really  important  problems 
of  the  house  and  the  salesmen.  All  others  should  be 
eliminated.  Care  should  be  taken  to  have  the  pre- 
siding officer  of  the  first  session  of  the  convention 
give  a  strong  inspiring  talk  that  will  strike  the  key- 
note for  the  entire  convention.  The  chairmen  of  the 
subsequent  sessions  should  be  company  executives 
who  are  familiar  with  the  particular  matters  under 
discussion,  who  are  strong  enough  to  hold  the  conven- 
tion to  the  program,  and  sufficiently  interesting  to 
keep  the  sessions  livened  up.  In  addition  to  the  man 
presiding,  it  is  well  to  choose  leaders  for  the  general 
discussion  that  will  follow  the  opening  address  of  the 
presiding  officer  at  each  session.  These  leaders  also 
should  be  men  who  will  stick  to  the  matter  in  hand  and 
lead  the  discussion  along  profitable  lines. 

4.  Typical  program. — A  typical  program  for  a 
three  days'  convention  might  include  a  "get  together'* 
session  on  the  morning  of  the  first  day.  This  will 
allow  the  salesmen  to  shake  hands  with  one  another, 
to  renew  acquaintances  with  members  of  the  inside 
organization  who  should  be  present  at  this  session, 


SALES  CONVENTIONS  349 

and  enable  the  gathering  to  settle  down  for  the  more 
serious  work  to  come.  On  the  afternoon  of  the  first 
day,  the  sales  records  of  the  year  just  ending  might 
be  discussed  with  the  sales  manager  presiding.  An- 
nouncements of  prize  winners  and  presentation  of 
prizes  will  be  made  at  this  session.  Announcements 
of  contests  and  prizes  for  the  coming  year  may  follow. 

The  morning  of  the  second  day  might  be  given  over 
to  a  discussion  of  improvements  in  the  product,  and 
the  afternoon  session  to  sales-building  plans  for  the 
coming  year,  including  methods  of  handling  territory 
and  training  new  men,  plans  for  the  development  of 
new  territory,  office  cooperation  and  advertising. 

The  morning  of  the  third  day  might  be  devoted  to 
improvements  in  the  presentation  and  selling  talk,  and 
the  afternoon  to  improvements  in  samples  and  equip- 
ment and  to  actual  selling  talks  given  by  star  sales- 
men. 

5.  Talks  hy  the  salesmen. — An  important  and  in- 
spiring thing  at  the  convention  will  be  the  talks  on 
various  subject  given  by  individual  salesmen.  The 
topic  on  which  each  man  is  to  talk  should  be  arranged 
beforehand.  One  concern  which  at  one  of  its  conven- 
tions had  called  upon  each  member  of  the  selling  or- 
ganization without  any  previous  preparation,  for  a 
talk  of  from  three  to  five  minutes'  duration  found  that 
a  great  many  of  the  men  were  at  a  loss  for  something 
to  say  and  comparatively  little  of  what  was  said  was 
really  worth  while.  After  the  first  few  had  spoken, 
those  who  followed  spent  their  five  minutes  mainly  in 


350  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

indorsing  the  things  that  had  been  said  previously. 
The  following  year,  therefore,  this  concern  followed 
the  plan  of  announcing  to  each  of  the  salesman  six 
weeks  in  advance,  the  subject  on  which  he  would  be 
expected  to  talk  for  five  minutes  at  the  convention. 

The  subjects  assigned  to  some  of  the  men  were 
those  on  which  they  were  best  qualified  to  talk;  those 
assigned  to  others  were  subjects  on  which  the  sales 
manager  wanted  them  to  put  some  deep  thought.  To 
some  salesmen,  for  example,  were  assigned  the  dis- 
cussion of  appeals  to  certain  classes  of  prospects. 
Others  were  requested  to  discuss  the  most  effective  use 
of  certain  samples  and  equipment.  One  salesman 
was  asked  to  outline  a  strong  opening  talk,  another 
to  discuss  effective  closing  tactics.  Still  another  was 
asked  to  talk  on  how  to  cover  a  widely  scattered  ter- 
ritory. A  salesman  who  had  been  especially  success- 
ful handling  advertising  inquiries  was  asked  to  tell 
how  he  did  it.  Still  another  was  asked  to  give  an  in- 
spiring talk  on  the  importance  of  "saving  the  day," 
that  is,  of  letting  no  day  go  by  without  securing  an 
order.  Several  who  had  each  put  over  some  big  deal 
during  the  year  were  asked  to  make  that  deal  the  sub- 
ject of  their  talk. 

These  talks  were  spread  over  the  entire  convention, 
a  certain  time  each  day  being  devoted  to  hearing  some 
of  them.  The  talks  became  so  intensely  interesting 
that  during  the  convention  one  of  the  salesmen  made 
a  motion  that  the  talks  be  issued  in  printed  form  im- 
mediately after  the  convention,  so  that  each  salesman 


SALES  CONVENTIONS  351 

might  have  the  opportunity  of  going  over  them  again. 
As  a  stenographic  report  of  the  convention  was  being 
made,  this  was  a  simple  matter.  The  talks  were 
found  to  be  so  full  of  valuable  selling  suggestions  and 
real  selling  helps  that  they  were  printed  and  made 
part  of  the  concern's  sales  manual. 

It  will  be  found  that,  if  a  salesman  does  not  know 
just  when  he  is  to  be  called  upon,  he  will  be  fretful 
and  nervous — and  consequently  not  in  a  position  to 
get  the  most  out  of  the  other  features  of  the  conven- 
tion— until  he  is  called  upon.  For  this  reason  the 
talk  of  each  individual  salesman  should  be  scheduled 
for  some  definite  session  of  the  convention:  or,  if 
this  is  impracticable,  the  list  of  salesmen's  talks  should 
be  alphabetically  arranged  according  to  the  salesmen's 
names  and  they  should  be  called  upon  in  this  order. 

6.  Securing  uiaxiinum  benefit  from  the  convention. 
— Every  minute  of  the  time  spent  in  convention  is 
valuable  and  none  of  it  should  be  wasted  by  rambling 
talks,  fruitless  discussions  or  too  much  emphasis  on 
relatively  unimportant  matters.  This  matter  lies 
largely  in  the  hands  of  the  presiding  officer.  Definite 
methods  for  avoiding  these  things  should  be  devised, 
however.  In  the  first  place,  a  firm  stand  should  be 
taken  against  coming  in  late  to  the  convention  ses- 
sions. It  should  be  made  plain  to  the  salesman  that 
this  is  an  act  of  discourtesy  toward  the  presiding  of- 
ficer, tlie  speaker  and  the  other  salesmen.  The  sales 
manager  should  insist  that  men  who  talk  must  have 
something  really  important  to  say.     Every  man  who 


352  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

is  given  the  floor  should  be  limited  to  a  certain  time 
determined  by  the  importance  of  the  subject  under 
discussion.  The  chairman  should  have  a  bell  to  ring 
when  the  speaker's  time  is  up.  This  rather  arbitrary  i 
method  will  be  softened  if  the  bell  is  first  rung  for  a 
high  official  who  has  purposely  exceeded  his  time. 

No  rival  conventions  of  three  or  four  men  in  the 
rear  of  the  hall  should  be  allowed,  for  nothing  is  more 
distracting  to  the  speaker  or  to  the  other  salesmen. 
These  minor  discussions  can  be  broken  up  courteously 
and  effectively  by  drawing  one  of  the  men  thus  en- 
gaged into  the  main  discussion. 

These  are  all  exceedingly  difficult  matters  upon 
which  to  insist  and  still  retain  the  spirit  of  enthusiasm 
and  good  fellowship  which  must  pervade  the  entire 
convention  if  it  is  to  be  a  success.  Too  much  emphasis 
on  the  necessity  of  being  brief  will  prevent  men  with 
ideas  from  expressing  them.  Too  much  leniency  in 
allowing  men  to  ramble  on  will  use  up  valuable  time 
and  weary  the  other  salesmen.  The  chairmen  of  the 
various  sessions  must  be  sufficiently  diplomatic  to  en- 
courage the  one,  curb  the  other,  keep  discipline  and 
conserve  time,  and  thru  it  all,  maintain  an  ardent  and 
loyal  spirit  in  the  convention. 

7.  Bringing  in  the  men. — Just  as  much  of  an  occa- 
sion as  possible  should  be  made  of  the  coming  in  of 
the  men.  If  all  the  western  men  can  be  gathered  at 
St.  Louis  or  Chicago  and  brought  on  from  that  point 
in  a  special  car,  so  much  the  better.  Accommoda- 
tions should  be  secured  at  an  official  hotel  and  rooms 


SALES  CONVENTIONS  353 

assigned  to  the  salesmen.  They  may  be  met  at  the 
train  bj^  a  delegation  of  the  inside  organization  and 
escorted  first  to  the  hotel  and  later  to  the  convention 
hall. 

8.  Entertainment. — It  should  be  remembered  that 
when  men  from  all  over  the  country  are  brought  into 
a  big  city  they  expect  a  certain  amount  of  entertain- 
ment. This  desire  on  their  part  should  not  be  op- 
posed but  made  a  valuable  part  of  the  convention  it- 
self. Informal  luncheons  may  be  provided  for  the 
men  on  the  days  of  the  convention.  These  should  be 
attended  by  the  principal  members  of  the  inside  or- 
ganization, as  well  as  the  salesmen.  A  reception  to 
meet  the  various  executives  and  department  heads  and 
directors  of  the  organization  might  be  arranged. 
This  may  be  followed  by  an  informal  "get  together" 
dinner.  A  theater  party  could  possibly  be  planned 
for  the  second  evening. 

Great  care  should  be  taken  in  arranging  the  enter- 
tainment with  which  the  convention  is  closed  on  the 
evening  of  the  last  day.  It  is  important  that  there  be 
an  especially  strong  spirit  of  good  fellowship  pervad- 
ing this  feature.  This  session,  usually  a  banquet, 
should  lead  up  gradually  to  a  climax  of  some  sort  and 
care  should  be  taken  t6  have  the  convention  break  uj) 
at  the  highest  point  of  enthusiasm.  Arrangements 
should  have  been  made  to  get  the  men  off  for  their 
territory  immediately.  Returning  to  the  office  the 
next  day  when  it  has  settled  back  into  its  every-day 
routine  is  depressing,  and  for  the  salesman  to  remain 


354  SALES  MANAGEMENT 

in  the  city  several  days  on  pleasure  bent  deadens  the 
enthusiasm  he  has  acquired  at  the  convention  before 
he  has  had  a  chance  to  apply  it  in  the  field. 

9.  Convention  hall. — The  convention  hall  need  not 
be  so  pretentious  as  the  name  would  seem  to  indi- 
cate. It  should,  however,  be  well  ventilated,  suit- 
ably decorated,  and  may  contain  exhibits  showing  the 
growth  of  the  business  or  the  making  of  the  product. 
Just  enough  chairs  should  be  provided  for  the  number 
who  will  be  present.  INI  any  empty  chairs  or  a  hall 
that  is  too  large  will  have  a  depressing  effect. 

A  stenographic  report  should  be  made  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  all  the  business  sessions.  This  will  be  ex- 
pensive, but  it  will  be  well  worth  while  if  the  conven- 
tion sticks  to  the  program. 

10.  Results  of  the  convention. — The  convention  is 
a  combination  of  work  and  play.  The  play  should 
not  be  allowed  to  encroach  upon  the  work  and  there 
should  be  snap  and  enthusiasm  in  every  session.  If 
the  convention  has  been  properly  handled,  it  will  re- 
turn its  cost  many  times  over  in  the  increased  enthusi- 
asm, loyalty  and  knowledge  of  the  field  force,  and  in 
the  new  viewpoint  it  has  given  the  inside  organization. 
Recruits  for  the  sales  force  who  have  had  an  Oppor- 
tunity to  attend  the  sessions  will  enter  the  training 
class  with  an  unquenchable  enthusiasm. 

11.  Idealizing  the  business. — That  methods  of  co- 
operating with  salesmen  and  of  getting  the  best  out 
of  them  such  as  have  been  described  cost  money  can- 
not be  denied.     But  that  the  money  spent  is  returned 


SALES  CONVENTIONS  355 

many  times  over  is  evidenced  bj'  the  big,  rapidly  grow- 
ing concerns  from  whose  experiences  these  facts  and 
methods  have  been  drawn.  In  reaHty,  it  costs  more 
money  to  operate  a  lot  of  poorly  trained  men  with  lit- 
tle or  no  enthusiasm  than  it  does  to  handle  a  well- 
trained,  highly  efficient,  enthusiastic  organization. 
And  it  is  only  by  methods  such  as  these  that  the  sales 
manager  can  create  that  united  and  collective  loyalty 
— loyalty  not  only  to  the  house,  and  the  ideals  behind 
it,  but  loyalty  to  every  other  member  of  the  organiza- 
tion outside  and  inside — conmionly  known  as  esj^rit 
de  corps. 

That  concern  is  to  be  congratulated  whose  salesmen 
refer  to  the  house  as  "ours" — w^ho  consider  themselves 
not  distinct  selling  units  but  members  of  a  big,  grow- 
ing family — who  look  upon  their  concern  as  the  ideal 
of  organization,  square  dealing  and  efficiency  and 
upon  its  product  as  the  best  of  its  kind — who  feel  that 
their  company  is  performing  a  highly  useful  service 
in  the  world  and  that  they  are  privileged  in  being  its 
representatives — and  who,  thru  this  love  and  regard, 
cast  their  lot  with  the  organization  not  for  a  day  but 
for  years. 

This  is  not  an  extravagant  statement.  There  are 
numberless  concerns  in  which  such  a  spirit  pervades 
the  selling  organization  from  top  to  bottom.  Few 
businesses  are  so  big,  so  successful  or  so  independent, 
that  they  would  not  cease  to  grow,  acquire  dry-rot  and 
eventually  crumble  into  decay  if  such  a  spirit  were 
wholly  lost  to  their  sales  force. 


356  SALES  MANAGEMENT 


REVIEW 

What  is  your  opinion  of  the  advisability  of  holding  a  con- 
vention annually  or  otherwise? 

What  may  a  convention  be  expected  to  accomplish  ? 

Outline  a  program  for  an  annual  convention  of  the  salesmen 
of  your  firm. 

Discuss  the  importance  of  playing  up  the  convention  be- 
forehand; plans  for  bringing  the  men;  looking  after  details; 
holding  the  convention  to  the  program. 

Discuss   "Idealizing  the   business." 


Note:  Numerous  questions  of  business  practice  and  procedure  are 
discussed  in  detail  in  the  Modern  Business  Reports.  The  current  list 
will  show  those  which  are  especially  related  to  this  volume.  Among 
them  may  be  mentioned 

16  Territorial  Supervision  of  Salesmen 

91  Preparing  for  Salesmanship 

59  Application  of  Scientific  Management  to  the  Sales  Department 

101  Legal  Aspects  of  Sales. 


INDEX 


Addressograph  Company, 

Methods  of  obtaining  salesmen,  230— 
231,    240 
Advertising, 

Relation  to  salesmanship,  4—7; 
Branded  staples  distributed  by, 
25—27;  Cooperation  of  salesmen 
and,  191—192;  Sales  manager's 
knowledge  of  business,  214;  Re- 
lation to  sales  department,  216— 
217;  Securing  salesmen,  228-229 
American  Steel  and  Wire  Co., 

Develops  salesmen  from  inside  ranks, 
229-230 
Angell,  James  E.,  on  Impelling  Motives, 

133 
Applicants  for  Salesmanship, 

Methods  of  selection,  234-247;  Test- 
;  ing  his  self-confidence,  236;  Rea- 
sons for,  considered,  237-238 ;  In- 
terviewing, 239-243 ;  Record 
blank,  244-245 
See  also  Building  an  Organization — 
Selecting  Men 

"Bill   Starters,"   Accruing  sales,    108 

Branded   Staples, 

Package  goods  and  bulk  sales,  24—26 
.See   also  Staples  and   Specialties 

Buck  Stove  and  Range  Company, 

Advertise     for     attorneys     as     sales- 
men,   228-229,    233 

Building  an  Organization — Selecting 
Men,  225-247 
Planning  the  selling  campaign,  225— 
226;  Special  selling  methods,  226- 
227;  Pacemaker,  and  new  men, 
227—228  ;  Advertising  for  salesmen, 
228;  Recruiting  from  inside  ranks, 
229-230;  Salesmen  from  rival 
concerns,  230;  Recruiting  from 
non-competitors,  230-231;  Sales 
force  obtain  salesmen,  231-232 ; 
College  men  as  salesmen,  232— 
233;  Training  inexperienced  men, 
233-234;  Selective  tests  for  new 
salesmen,  234—236;  Applicant's 
motives,  236-237;  Preliminary 
correspondence,  237—238;  Inter- 
viewing   the    applicant,    238-243; 

357 


Building  an  Organization — continued 

References,  243;  Application 
blanks,  243-245;  Young  men  pre- 
ferred,   245-247 

Building  an  Organization — Training 
Salesmen,  248-262 
Methods  for  definite  classes,  248- 
249;  Divisions  of  training,  249; 
House  training,  and  class  work, 
250-253;  Practical  instruction, 
253;  Selling  methods,  and  manual 
text-book,  254;  Star  salesmen  in- 
struct, 254;  Field  methods,  and 
coach,  256-259;  Group  methods  of 
field  training,  259-262;  Results  of 
training    warrant    investment,    262 

Burroughs  Adding  Machine  Company, 
Convention  methods,    347 

Cancelation  of  Sale,  Reassurance  need- 
ed  to   prevent,    105-106 

Calling  Back, 

Methods  to  discourage,  113-118; 
New  propositions  that  entail,  116- 
118 

Character  and  Caliber, 

See  Development  of  Character  and 
Caliber,    143-171 

Compensation  and  Territory, 

Accomplishments  of  plan,    281;    Sal- 
ary    and     expenses,     282;     Salary 
and     commission,     advantages     of, 
283-285;       Straight      commission, 
disadvantages  of,  285-287;   Draw- 
ing account,    287-289;    Promotion 
of    salesmen,    289-290;    Territory 
how   worked,    290-292,    296;    Ter 
ritory,     readjustments,     293-295 
Methods  of  routing,  295;  Automo 
bile   method   of    routing,    295-296 
Guaranteed    territory,    297 
See  also  Territory 

Complaints,   Sales  manager's  policy  to- 
ward,  220 

Confidence, 

Prospect's   faith   in   salesman,   goods 
and    house,    75-76;    Distinguished 
from    coroeit,     159-162 
See  also  Cooperation,  Influence  and 
Friendship 


358 


INDEX 


Conventions,   See   Sales   Conventions 

Cooperation, 

Facilitates    interview    of    prospects, 
46-47;    Promotes    business,    106; 
How  secured,    222-224 
See  also  Cooperation,  Influence   and 

Triendship 
See  also  Cooperation  with  Salesmen 
See  also  Customers'  Cooperation 

Cooperation,  Influence  and  Friendship, 
Cooperation  is  partnership.  188-189, 
204;  Information  concerning  cus- 
tomers, 189-190;  Credit  men,  and 
advertising,  190-192;  Sales  man- 
agers, and  the  house  organ,  192- 
194;  Cooperation  due  salesmen,  of 
two  kinds,  194—195;  Salesmen  co- 
operate with  customers,  195-196; 
Salesmen  a  clearing  house  for  in- 
formation, 196-197;  Personal  re- 
lations cultivated,  198;  Cus- 
tomers' cooperation  valuable,  198— 
201 ;  Representative  customers, 
201-202;  Indorsement  from  cus- 
tomers valuable,  202-203 ;  Loyal- 
ty to  house  and  customer,  203- 
204 

Cooperation  with   Salesmen, 

Manager's  real  task,  311;  Too  much 
"ginger,"  311-312;  Field  visits 
of  manager,  312-313;  Daily  let- 
ters from  manager  renew  enthu- 
siasm, 313-318;  House  organs 
promote  helpful  cooperation,  320- 
328 

Creative  Salesmanship, 

Unlimited  demand  for  men,  13;  De- 
mand makes  need  for  variable,  26; 
Instances  of,    117-122 

Credits, 

Ratings  and  adjustment,  190-191; 
Cooperation  with  sales  department, 
219 

Customers'    Cooperation, 

Value  of  personal  relation,  195-204; 
Salesman  a  clearing  house  for  in- 
formation, 196-198;  Letters  of  in- 
dorsement prove  valuable,  198-203 
See  also  Cooperation,  Influence  and 
Friendship 


Daily  Letters,  To  salesmen,  inspira- 
tional character  of,  313-318 

Delayed  Decisions,  "Think  it  over," 
and  "call  back"  circumvented, 
113-116 

Development  of  Character  and  Caliber, 
143-171 
Qualifications  in  salesmen,   143-145; 
Native     ability     developed,      145- 


Development — continued 

146;  Health — physical  and  men- 
tal efficiency,  146-147;  Knowledge 
of  selling  points  essential,  147- 
150;  Preparedness,  secret  of  suc- 
cess, says  Beveridge,  148;  Ambi 
tion  and  achievement,  152-153 
Application  and  energy,  152 
Faculty  of  observation,  152-153 
Tact  a'  valuable  asset,  153-156 
Concentration  acquired  by  prac 
tice,  156;  Courage  and  determina 
tion,  157;  Honesty,  and  business 
ethics,  158-159;  Confidence  and 
what  it  embraces,  159-162;  En- 
thusiasm vital  factor  in  selling, 
1C2-163;  Loyalty  begets  loyalty, 
163-164;  Optimism,  false  and 
true,  164;  Imagination  appealed 
to,  165;  Education  defined,  165- 
106;  Voice  training,  166-167; 
Unobtrusive  appearance  essential, 
167;  personality  which  charac- 
terizes, 167-168;  Self  analysis 
and  improvement,  168-169 

Dismissing   the   Buyer,    Salesman's   at- 
titude   in,    107 

Distribution, 

Problems    and    importance    of    sales- 
manship,   3-18 
See  also  Sales  Management 

Duties  and  Responsibilities  of  Sales- 
men, 
Maximum  efficiency  standards,  172- 
174;  Routing  trips  to  gain  time, 
174-177;  Organizing  a  town,  175- 
177;  Day's  work  planned,  177— 
178;  Efficiency  rate  obtained, 
179;  Full  day's  work,  and  a  mes- 
sage to  salesmen,  179—182;  Rainy 
days  promising,  182;  Law  of  aver- 
ages, 182-184;  Territory  an  as- 
set, 184-185;  Business  hours,  and 
recreation,    185-187 

Education, 

Broad  meaning  of,  166;  Self-analy- 
sis to  improve  faculties,  168-171; 
Attorneys  qualify  as  salesmen, 
229-233;  college  men  efficient 
salesmen,  232-233;  Training  sales- 
men— house  and  field  methods, 
248-262 

See  also  Building  an  Organization — 
Training    Salesmen 
Enthusiasm,      * 

Optimism  created  by.  162-165; 
Sales  manager's  letters  inspire, 
313-318;  Sales  contests  promote, 
329-345;  Conventions  and  coop- 
eration,  346-354 


INDEX 


359 


Enthusiasm — continued 

See.   also   Cooperation,   Influence  and 
Friendship 
Equipment, 

Portability,  and  the  selling  appeal, 
270-271,  273;  Imaginative  appeal 
of,  271-272;  Products  visualized, 
272;  Attractive  condition  of,  273- 
274 

See  also  Selling  Methods  and  the 
Selling  Equipment 

Finances,   Cooperating  with  sales  man- 
agers,   221-222 

Friendship,  Potential  value  of,  in  mak- 
ing  sales,    124-128 
Cooperation     created     by,     188-204 
Cultivating       jjersonal       relations 
198-200,  204;  Sales  manager's  at 
titude    toward    his   men,    211-212 
Training     classes     promote,     253- 
261 
See  also  Cooperation,  Influence  and 
Friendship 

Fraser,  J.  K., 

On  salesman's  attitude,  78;  On  re- 
cruiting    salesmen,     231-232 

House  and  Field  Training,  Methods  of 
coaching    salesmen,    248-262,    312 

House  Organs, 

Selling  suggestions  contained  in, 
193,  277;  Types  of,  and  purposes, 
320-326;  Coutributious  to,  and 
salesmen's  articles,  325-327; 
Sales  manager  to  edit,  327;  An- 
nouncing  sales   contests,    339,    341 

Human  Appeals  that  Sell, 

Sale  not  a  scientific  ijrocess,  124; 
Respect  and  admiration  of  pros- 
pect, 124-125;  Friendship  for 
prospect,  124-128;  Knowledge 
of  human  nature  wins  sales,  128 
141-142;  Self-esteem  aroused 
129-130;  Appeal  to  acquisitive 
ness,  130-132;  Home  and  family 
appeal,  132-133;  Impelling  mo 
tives  to  buy,  133;  Appeal  to  in 
tellect  causes  deliberation,  134 
135;  Reason  or  suggestion  may 
impel,  134-136;  Imaginative  ap 
peal,  136-138;  Positive  sugges 
tion,  138;  Positive  versus  nega 
tive,  140-141 
See  also  Selling  Process — The  Inter- 
view 

Imaginative  Appeal, 

Effects    sales,     133-138;     Equipment 
which  stimulates,   171 


Letters  of  Indorsement, 

Cooperation  from  customers,  an  in- 
stance cited.  198-203;  Pur- 
chasers' letters  reproduced  in  fac- 
simile, 272;  Manager's  daily  let- 
ter, 313 
See  also  Cooperation,  Influence  and 
Friendship 

Life  Insurance,   "Cold  canvass"   meth- 
ods,   116-117 

Lockwood,  W.  F.,  on  Salesnen's  inter- 
views,  54-55 


Marketing  Methods, 

Salesmanship     and     distribution,     3- 
18 

See  also  Sales  Management 
Motives  and  Appeals  that  Sell,  124-141 


National  Biscuit  Company, 

Branded  staples  made  standard,  24; 
Recruits  salesmen  from  grocers 
selling   its   products,    232 

National  Cash  Register  Company, 

Sales  schools'  methods,  252,  253; 
Standard  selling  talk  originated 
by,  267;  Sales  conventions  held, 
346 

Native    Ability,    Faculties    included    in, 
145-146 


Organization, 

Planning  town  work,  and  routing, 
175-178;  In  sales  management 
207-224;  Building  an  efficient  sell 
ing  force,  208-209;  Andrew  Car 
negie  on,  208;  Sales  managers, 
and  experience.  211;  Sales  man 
ager's   ability.    214 

See  also  Building  an  Organization — 
Selecting  Men 

See  also  Building  an  Organization — 
Training  Salesmen 


Persistence  that   Wins,    102-103,    111, 
112,    120-122 

Philips,   David   Graham,   on   Concentra- 
tion   of    puriioso,    156 

Pitfalls,     Deals    that    eliminate    profits, 
109- 111 

Positive  Suggestions, 

Presentation  Methods,  81-83; 

Marked  results  of,   139-141 
See  also  Selling  Process — The  Inter- 
view 

Power    of    Personal    Salesmanship 

Distribution    problems,    3-4;    Adver- 


360 


INDEX 


Power,  Personal  Salesmanship — cont'd 
tising  versus  salesmanship,  4—7 ; 
Distributing  merchandise,  com- 
plex systems,  7-9;  Salesman's  im- 
portance, 9-10;  Demand  and  sup- 
ply, 10;  Remuneration  and  initia- 
tive, 11,  13;  Retail  selling  and 
training  for,  11-13;  Creative 
salesmanship,  13;  Opportunities 
for  success,  14-15;  Universality 
of  selling,  15-16;  Science  of  sales- 
manship, 1(3-17;  Experience  and 
training,    17-18 

See  also  Selling  Process — The  Inter- 
view 
Preparedness, 

Knowledge  of  goods  essential,  147- 
151 

See  also  Cooperation  with   Salesmen 

See  also  Duties  and  Bespousibilities 
of  Salesmen 
Price   Competition,    in   printing  trades, 

113 
Price  Getting, 

Profits,  and  price-cutters.  111;  Serv- 
ice  and  quality   emphasized,    112— 
113 
Production  Department, 

Relation    to    sales,    217-218;    Stand- 
ardization to  reduce  cost,  218 
Prospects  Who  "Think  it  over," 

Tactics  in  closing  a  sale,  90-93;  De- 
liberations that  postpone  a  sale, 
113-115 

Qualifications    Essential    to    Salesman- 
ship, 143-171 
Positive    versus    negative     qualities, 

144 
See  also  Building  an  Organization — 
Selecting  Men 
Quotas,    Methods   of    determining,    and 
prizes,    341-344 

Reports,   See  Sales  Records 
Robert  H.  IngersoU  and  Brother, 

Elaborate    sales    records,    300-305 
Routing, 

Conservation  of  time  essential,  174- 
182;  Planning  from  the  home  of- 
fice, 295;  Simplified  by  automo- 
bile, 295-296;  Route  cards  for 
filing,  307 
See  also  Compensation  and  Territory 

Sales  Contests, 

Love  of  games  inherent,  329;  Even 
winning  chances,  330-331:  Fig- 
uring standings  in,  331-332;  Na- 
ture    of     prizes,      332-333,      342- 


Sales  Contests — continued 

344;    Plans    of,    and    clubs,    333— 
334,     338;     Baseball     teams,     334- 
336;   Athletic  clubs,    336;    Annual 
contest    on    point    basis,    337-338 
"Big    Cities"     contest,     338-339 
Announcing     standings,     339-341 
Quotas,      determination      of      and 
prizes,    341-344 

Sales  Conventions, 

Methods  of  holding.  346-348;  Pro- 
gram for,  and  type  of,  348-349; 
Salesmen's  talks  outlined,  349— 
351;  ilaxiuium  benefit  secured, 
351-352;  Nature  of  entertain- 
ment, and  place  of  meeting, 
352-354;  Promoting  enthusiastic 
ideals,    354-355 

Sales  Department, 

Cooperation  to  promote  efiiciency, 
216,  217;  Quality  of  product  and 
labor  policy,    218 

Sales  Management, 

Qualifications  and  duties  of  manager, 
207-224;  Past  and  present  day 
methods,  207-210;  Personal  re- 
gard and  team  work,  211—212; 
Loyalty  begets  loyalty,  213-214; 
Discipline  without  restrictions, 
213;  Organizing  ability,  214; 
Knowledge  of  finance  essential, 
214-215;  Attitude  of  manager  to 
promote  business,  215;  Depart- 
mental cooperation,  216;  Relation 
of  advertising  to,  216-217;  Pro- 
duction and  standardization,  217— 
218;  Quality  of  goods,  and  the 
labor  policy,  218;  Increasing  busi- 
ness thru  the  credit  department, 
219;  Policy  toward  complaints, 
220;  Service  department,  220- 
221;  Methods  of  finance,  221- 
222  ;  Loyalty  the  basis  of  coopera- 
tion, 222-224 
See  also  Cooperation  with  Salesmen 

Sales  Manual, 

Information  included,  and  table  of 
contents,  275-279;  Example  of  an 
introduction,    279 

Sales  Records, 

Statistics,  and  salesmen's  reports, 
298-300,  307-310;  Robert  H.  In- 
gersoU and  Brother  method,  300— 
305;  Daily  reports  and  letters, 
305-306;  Tabulation  of  sales  man- 
ager, 306;  Maps  to  indicate 
routes,  308;  Territorial  maps, 
308;  Monthly  sales  classification, 
309 

Selecting  Salesmen,  Building  an  organ- 
ization,   225-246 


INDEX 


361 


Selecting  Salesmen — continued 

See  also  Applicants  for  Salesmanship 
See  also  Building  an  Organization — 
Selecting  Men 
Self-Analysis,      Physical,      meutal     and 
temperaiueufal    qualities,     168-171 
Selling  Methods  and  the  Selling  Equip- 
ment, 
New  suggestions  and  working  plans, 
263-266;     Staudard     selliug     talk 
not    effective,     267-270;    Carriers 
and     aids     to     selling,     270-273; 
Visualizing      the      product,      272; 
Equipment    kept    attractive,    273- 
274;    Sales    manual,    and    what    it 
should  include,   275-279 
Selling   Process — Miscellaneous, 

Concurrence  of  buyer  and  seller, 
101—102;  Jlethods  of  persistence, 
Good  humor  a  factor,  103-105; 
Reassurance  after  sale,  105-106; 
Information  that  aids  the  resale, 
106;  Impressing  the  buyer  after  a 
sale,  107-108;  "Bill  starter" 
methods,  108;  Margins  of  profit 
on  small  sales,  109-111;  Price 
getting,  111-112;  Service  and 
quality  overcome  price,  112-113; 
Postponed  decisions  to  buy,  113- 
116;  ''Callback"  prospects,  115- 
116;  Preliminary  calls,  116-119, 
Creative  salesmanship,  119-122 
Selling  Process — Preliminary  to  Inter- 
view, 
Advantages  of  a  sale,  threefold,  28- 
29;  Stages  in  selling  process,  29- 
30;  Studying  the  prospect,  31-33; 
Card  record  of  customer,  33;  Se- 
curing an  interview,  34;  Busy 
men  difficult  to  reach,  35 ;  Tactics 
to  be  avoided,  35-36;  Appoint- 
ments by  telephone,  37-40;  Defi- 
nite appointments  difficult  to  man- 
age, 41;  Dignified  bearing  and  im- 
pression, 42 ;  Courteous  behavior 
in  office,  42-44;  Favorable  con- 
ditions necessary,  45;  Cooperation 
in  reaching  prospect,  46;  Ingeni- 
ous methods  of  announcement, 
47-48;  Proper  approach  for  sales- 
man, 49 
Selling  Process — The  Agreement, 
Meeting  objections,  77;  Friendly  at 
titude  creates  a  sale,  78;  Over- 
coming the  inhibition,  78-79;  De- 
ferring question  of  price,  79-80: 
Inhibition  removed  by  increasing 
desire,  80;  Objections  handled 
tactfully,  80-81;  Presentation  to 
avoid  inhibitions,  81-82;  Indo 
pendent  attitude  effective,   82-83 ; 


Selling  Process — continued 

Competing  goods  unmentioned, 
83-84;  Objections  overcome  as  de- 
sire increases.  85-86;  Showing 
profits  to  buyer  effects  sales,  86- 
90,  Desire  manifest,  90;  Closing 
the  sale,  90-92;  Closing  tactics 
to  secure  decision,  91-94;  jNIinor 
point  principle,  94-96;  Writing 
the  order,  95-98;  Mechanical 
moves  in   closing,   98-100 

Selling  Process — The  Interview, 

Developments  in  selling  process 
studied,  50-51;  Favorable  condi- 
tions secure  attention,  51-52; 
Card  and  the  handshake,  52-53; 
Small  favors  granted,  a  point  in 
sales,  53-55;  Securing  attention 
to  goods,  56-57;  Opening  remarks 
conservative,  57;  Questions  to 
provoke  interest,  57-58;  Curios- 
ity begets  attention,  59-60;  At- 
tention by  dramatic  means,  60-62; 
Buyers'  participation  in  sale,  62- 
63 ;  Specific  approach  to  a  varied 
line,  63-64;  Sample  rooms  for 
display  of  trunk  lines,  64-66;  At- 
tractive display  enhances  goods, 
66-67;  Prospect's  self-interest, 
67;  Example  of  "you"  attitude, 
68-69;  Interest  leading  to  desire, 
69-70;  Straightforward  words 
most  convincing.  70-71;  Overcom- 
ing interruptious,  71-72;  Prospect 
participates  in  demonstration  of 
goods,  73-75;  Confidence  in  sales- 
man,  goods  and  house,  75-76 

Service  and  Quality, 

Paramount  to  price,  112-113;  Qual- 
ity of,    increases   sales,   220-221 

Sherwin-Williams  Company,  Recruits 
salesmen  from  inside  ranks,  230, 
2;i4,    238 

Social  Policy, 

Human  appeals  that  sell,  124  et 
acq.;  Cooperation  with  customers, 
195-204;  Sales  contests,  and  the 
love  of  sports,  329-344;  Sales 
conventions  promote  enthusiasm, 
346-355 

Soliciting  the  Buyer, 

Specially    .selling.    19-20 
■Nc'c  also  Selling  Process — Miscellane- 
ous 

Specialties, 

Relation    to    staples.    21-24 

Sfe   al.so   Staples   and   Specialties 

Staples  and  Specialties, 

Selling  das.sitied.  19-21;  Differences 
and  interrelations.  21-24;  Com 
petition  and  sales,  22;  Staples  the 


362  INDEX 

staples  and  Specialties — continued  Territory — continued 

product  of  demand,  22 ;  Specialties  eratiou    witli    house    a    moral    re- 
converted    into      staples,      23-24;  spousibility,    194-195 
Branded        staples        standardized  6'ee  also  Compensation  and  Territory 
goods,  24-26;   Problems  in  selling  Training  Salesmen, 

branded    staples,    25-26;    Coiupeti-  Building    an     organization,     248-2G1: 

tion    complicates    selling,     26-27;  «Vee   also  Cooperation  witb  Salesmen 
Three  factors  in  selling,  27 

Willys-Overland  Company, 

Presents  case  of  sales  efficiency,   15 ; 

Territory,  Shop    training    for    salesmen,    253 

Working    methods    and    responsibil-  Winton  Motor  Car  Company, 

ities  toward,  172-185;  Salesman's  Develops    salesmen    from    chauffeurs 

attitude    toward,    184-185;    Coop-  and   mechanics,   230 


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